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STANLEY 

9 

IN AFRICA. ^,. 

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THE 

WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES 

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THE GREAT AFRICAN EXPLORER 



AND OTHER 



TRAVELERS, PIONEERS AND MISSIONARIES. 

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BY 

JAMKS PfBOYD, A. Nl. 

Author of ' Political History oi the United States " and ' ' Life of Gen. TT ^ , nrant " ^tr 

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P. W. ZIEGLER & CO., 
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ITl^ODDCTIOE 



A VOLUME of travel, exploration and adventure is never without 
instruction and ^fascination for old and young. There is that 
within us all which ever seeks for the mysteries which are 
hidden behind mountains, closeted in forests, concealed by earth or 
sea, in a word, which are enwrapped by Nature. And there is equally 
that within us which is touched most sensitively and stirred most 
deeply by the heroism which has characterized the pioneer of all 
ages of the world and in every field of adventm-e. 

How like enchantment is the story of that revelation which the 
New America furnished the Old World ! What a spirit of inquiry 
and exploit it opened ! How unprecedented and startling, adventure 
of every kind became! What thrilling volumes tell of the hard- 
ships of daring navigators or of the perils of brave and dashing 
landsmen ! Later on, who fails to read with the keenest emotion of 
those dangers, trials and escapes which enveloped the intrepid 
searchers after the icy secrets of the Poles, or confronted those who 
would unfold the tale of the older civilizations and of the ocean's 
island space's. 

Though the directions of pioneering enterprise change, yet more 
and more man searches for the new. To follow him, is to write of 
the wonderful. Again, to follow him is to read of the surprising 
and the thrilling. No prior history of discovery has ever exceeded 
in vigorous entertainment and startling interest that which centers 
in " The Dark Continent " and has for its most distinguished hero, 
Henry M. Stanley. His coming and going in the untrodden and 



INTRODUCTION". 

hostile wilds of Africa, now to rescue the stranded pioneers of other 
nationalities, now to explore the unknown Avaters of a mighty and 
unique system, now to teach cannibal tribes respect for decency and 
law, and now to map for the first time with any degree of accuracy, 
the hmits of new dynasties, make up a volume of surpassing 
moment and peculiar fascination. 

All the world now turns to Africa as the scene of those adven- 
tures which possess such a weird and startling interest for readers of 
every class, and which invite to heroic exertion on the part of pion- 
eers. It is the one dark, mysterious spot, strangely made up of 
massive mountains, lofty and extended plateaus, salt and sandy 
deserts, immense fertile stretches, climates of death and balm, spa- 
cious lakes, gigantic rivers, dense forests, numerous, grotesque and 
savage peoples, and an animal life of fierce mien, enormous strength 
and endless variety. It is the country of the marvelous, yet none 
of its marvels exceed its realities. 

And each exploration, each pioneering exploit, each history of 
adventure into its mysterious depths, but intensifies the world's 
view of it and enhances human interest in it, for it is there the 
civihzed nations are soon to set metes and bounds to their 
grandest acquisitions — perhaps in peace, perhaps in war. It is 
there that white colonization shall try its boldest problems. 
It is there that Christianity shall engage in one of its hardest 
contests. 

Victor Hugo says, that " Africa will be the continent of the 
twentieth century." Already the nations are struggling to possess 
it. Stanley's explorations proved the majesty and efiicacy of equip- 
ment and force amid these dusky peoples and through the awfal 
mazes of the unknown. Empires watched with eager eye the 
progress of his last daring journey. Science and , civilization 
stood ready to welcome its results. He comes to light again, 
having escaped ambush, flood, the wild beast and disease, and his 
revelations set the world aglow. He is greeted by kings, hailed 
by savants, and looked to by the colonizing nations as the future 
pioneer of political power and commercial enterprise in their 
behalf, as he has been the most redoubtable leader of adventure in 
the past. 



INTEODUCTIOlSr, 

This miraculous journey of the dashing and intrepid explorer, 
completed against obstacles which all believed to be insurmountable, 
safely ended after opinion had given him up as dead, together with 
its bearings on the fortunes of those nations who are casting anew 
the chart of Africa, and upon the native peoples who are to be 
revolutionized or exterminated by the last grand surges of progress, 
all these render a volume dedicated to travel and discovery, es- 
pecially in the realm of " The Dark Continent," siirprisingly 
agreeable and useful at this time. 



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CONTENTS. 



HENEY M. STANLEY, 19 

Stanley is safe ; the world's rej )icings ; a new volume in African annals ; 
who is "this wizard of travel?" story of Stanley's life ; a poor 
"Welsh boy ; a work-house pupil ; teaching school ; a sailor boy ; in a 
New Orleans counting-house ; an adopted child ; bereft and penni- 
less ; a soldier of the South ; captured and a prisoner ; in the Federal 
Navy ; the brilliant correspondent ; love of travel and adventure ; 
dauntless amid danger ; in Asia-Minor and Abyssinia ; at the court of 
Spain ; in search of Livingstone ; at Ujiji on Tanganyika ; the lost 
found; across the " dark continent ; " down the dashing Congo; 
boldest of all marches ; acclaim of the world. 



THE CONGO FREE STATE, ...... 27 

;V Congo's empire ; Stanley's grand conception ; European ambitions ; the 
International Association ; Stanley off for Zanzibar ; enlists his car- 
riers ; at the mouth of the Congo ; preparing to ascend the river ; his 
force and equipments ; the river and river towns ; hippopotamus 
hunting ; the big chiefs of Vivi ; the '' rock-breaker ; " founding sta- 
tions ; making treaties ; tribal characteristics ; Congo scenes ; ele- 
phants, buffaloes and water-buck ; building houses and planting gar- 
dens ; making roads ; rounding the portages ; river crocodiles and the 
steamers ; foraging in the wilderness ; products of the country ; the 
king and the gong ; no more war fetish ; above the cataracts ; Stanley 

(5) 



CONTENTS. 



Pool and Leopoldville ; comparison of Congo with other rivers ; 
exploration of the Kwa ; Stanley sick ; his return to Europe ; further 
plans for his "Free State;" again on the Congo ; Bolobo and its 
chiefs; medicine for wealth ; a free river, but no land ; scenery on 
the upper Congo ; the Watwa dwarfs ; the lion and his prey ; war at 
Bolobo ; the Equator station ; a long voyage ahead ; a modern Her- 
cules ; tropical scenes ; a trick with a tiger skin ; hostile natives ; a 
canoe brigade; the Aruwimi ; ravages of slave traders; captive 
women and childreft ; to Stanley Falls ; the cataracts ; appointing a 
chief ; the people and products ; wreck of a steamer ; a horrible mas- 
sacre ; down the Congo to Stanley Pool ; again at Bolobo ; a burnt 
station ; news from missionaries ; at Leopoldville ; down to Yivi ; the 
treaties with chiefs ; treaty districts ; the Camaroon country ; oil 
river region ; Stanley's return to London ; opinions of African life ; 
thirst for rum ; adventures and accidents ; advice to adventurers ; 
outlines of the Congo Free State ; its wealth and productions ; com- 
mercial value : the Berlin conference ; national jurisdiction ; consti- 
tution of the Congo Free States ; results. 



THE SEARCH FOR EMIN, 139 

Stanley's call ; the Belgian king ; the Emin Pasha relief committee ; Stan- 
ley in charge of the expedition ; off for Central Africa ; rounding the 
cataracts ; the rendezvous at Stanley Pool ; who is Emin ? his life and 
character ; a favorite of Gordon ; fall of Khartoum ; Emin cut off in 
equatorial Soudan ; rising of the Mahdi ; death of Gordon ; Emin lost 
in his equatorial province ; his capitals and country ; Stanley pushes 
to the Aruwimi ; Tippoo Tib and his promises ; Barttelot and the 
camps ; trip up the Aruwimi ; wanderings in the forest ; battles with 
the dwarfs ; sickness, starvation and death ; lost in the wilds ; the 
plains at last ; grass and banana plantations ; arrival at Albert 
Nyanza ; no word of Emin ; back to the Aruwimi for boats ; another 
journey to the lake ; Emin found ; tantalizing consultations ; Stanley 
leaves for his forest stations ; treachery of Tippoo Tib ; massacre of 
Barttelot ; the Mahdi influence ; again for the Lake to save Emin ; 
willing to leave Africa; the start for Zanzibar; hardships of the 
trip; safe arrival at Zanzibar; accident to Emin; the world's 
applause ; Stanley a hero , 



CONTENTS. 7 

EGYPT AND THE NILE, . ...... 185 

Shaking hands at Ujiji ; Africa a wonderland ; Mizriam and Ham ; Egypt a 
gateway ; mother of literature, art and religion ; the Jews and Egypt ; 
mouths of the Kile ; the Eosetta stone ; Suez Canal ; Alexandria ; 
Pharos, a "wonder of the world;" Cleopatra's needles; Pompey's 
Pillar ; the catacombs ; up the Kile to Cairo ; description of Cairo ; 
Memphis ; the Pyramids and Sphinx ; convent of the pulley ; Abydos 
its magnificent ruins ; City of " the Hundred Gates ;" temple of 
Luxor ; statues of Memnon ; the palace temple of Thebes ; the old 
Theban Kings ; how they built ; ruins of Karnak ; most imposing in 
the world ; temples of Central Thebes ; wonderful temple of Edfou ; 
the Island of Philse ; the elephantine ruins ; grand ruins of Ipsambul ; 
Nubian ruins ; rock tomb at Beni-Hassan ; the weird "caves of the 
crocodiles;" horrid death of a traveler; Colonel and Lady Baker; 
from Kartoum to Gondokoro ; hardships of a Kile expedition ; the 
" forty thieves;" Sudd on the White Kile ; adventures with hippopot- 
ami ; mobbing a crocodile ; rescuing slaves ; at Gondokoro ; horrors 
of the situation ; battles with the natives ; night attack ; hunting ele- 
phants ; instincts of the animal ; natural scenery ; different native 
tribes ; cruelty of slave-hunters ; ambuscades ; annexing the country ; 
hunting adventures ; the Madhi's rebellion ; death of Gordon. 



SOUECES OF THE NILE 257 



African mysteries ; early adventures ; the wonderful lake regions ; excite- 
ment over discovery ; disputed points ; the wish of emperors ; journey 
through the desert ; Baker and Mrs. Baker ; M'dsUe Tinne ; Kile 
waters and vegetation ; dangers of exploration ; from Gondokoro to 
Albert Kyanza , native chiefs and races ; traits and adventure ; 
discovery of Albert Kyanza ; King Kamrasi ; his royal pranks ; 
adventures on the lake : a true Kile source ; Murchison Falls ; revela- 
tions by Speke and Grant ; Victoria Kyanza ; another Kile source ; 
Stanley on the scene ; his manner of travel ; trip to Victoria Kyanza ; 
voyage of the "Lady Alice ;" adventures on the lake ; King Mtesa 
and his empire ; wonders of the great lake . surprises for Stanley : in 
battle for King Mtesa ; results of his discoveries ; native traditions ; 
demons and dwarfs ; off for Tanganyika. 



8 CONTENTS. 

THE ZAMBESI, 331 

Livingstone on the scene ; how he got into Africa ; his early adventures and 
trials ; wounded by a lion ; his marriage ; ofE for Lake Ngam ; among 
the Makololo ; down the Chobe to the Zambesi ; up the Zambesi ; 
across the Continent to Loanda ; discovery of Lake Dilolo ; import- 
ance of the discovery ; description of the lake ; its wonderful animals ; 
methods of African travel ; rain-makers and witchcraft ; the magic 
lantern scene ; animals of the Zambesi ; country, people and pro- 
ductions ; adventures among the rapids ; the Gouye Falls ; the burn- 
ing desert and Cuando river ; an elephant hunt ; the wonderful Vic- 
toria Falls ; sounding smoke ; the Charka wars ; lower Zambesi val- 
ley ; wonderful animal and vegetable growth ; mighty affluents ; 
escape from a buffalo; slave hunters ; Shire river and Lake Nyassa ; 
peculiar native head-dresses ; native games, manners and customs ; 
Pinto at Victoria Falls ; central salt pans. 

THE CONGO, . . .367 

Discovery of the wonderful Lake Tanganyika ; Burton and Speke's visit ; 
Livingstone's trials ; his geographical delusions ; gorilla and chimpan- 
zee ; Livingstone at Bangweola ; on the Lualaba ; hunting the soko ; 
thrilling adventure with a leopard ; the Kyangwe people ; struggle 
back to Ujiji; meeting with Stanley ; joy in the wilderness ; explora- 
tion of Tanganyika ; the parting ; Livingstone's last journey ; amid 
rain and swamps ; close of his career ; death of the explorer ; care of 
his body ; faithful natives ; Stanley's second visit ; what he had done ; 
strikes the Lualaba ; descends in the " Lady Alice ; " fights with the 
natives ; ambuscades and strategies ; boating amid rapids ; thrilling 
adventures amid falls and cataracts ; wonderful streams ; the Lualaba 
is the Congo ; joy over the discovery ; gauntlet of arrows and spears ; 
loss of men and boats : death of Frank Pocock ; the falls become too 
formidable ; overland to the Atlantic ; at the mouth of the mighty 
Congo ; return trip to Zanzibar ; the Congo empire ; Stanley's future 
plans. 

CAPE OF STOEMS, 416 

Discovery of the Cape ; early settlers ; table mountain ; Hottentot and 
Boer ; the diamond regions ; the Zulu warriors ; the Pacific republics ; 
natal and the transvaal ; manners, customs, animals and sports ; cli- 
mate and resources. 



CONTENTS. y 

NYASSALAND, 423 

A disputed possession ; the beautiful Shire ; rapids and cataracts ; mountain 
fringed valleys ; rank tropical vegetation ; magnificent upland scenery ; 
thrifty and ingenious natives ; cotton and sorghum ; the Go-Nakeds ; 
beer and smoke ; geese, ducks and waterfowls ; Lake Shirwa ; the 
Blantyre mission ; the Manganja highlands ; a village scene ; native 
honesty ; discovery of Lake JS; yassa ; description of the Lake ; lofty 
mountain ranges ; Livingstone's impressions ; Mazitu and Zulu ; 
native arms, dresses and customs ; slave-hunting Arabs ; slave cara- 
vans ; population about Nyassa ; storms on the lake ; the first steamer ; 
elouds of " Kungo " flies ; elephant herds ; charge of an elephant bull ; 
exciting sport ; African and Asiatic elephants ; the Scottish mission 
stations ; great wealth of Nyassaland ; value to commerce ; the English 
and Portuguese claims. 



AFRICAN RESOURCES, 441 

African coasts and mysteries ; Kegroland of the school-books ; how to study 
Africa ; a vast peninsula ; the coast rind ; central plateaus and moun- 
tain ranges ; Stanley's last discoveries ; a field for naturalists ; bird 
and insect life ; wild and weird nature ; vast area ; incomputable 
population ; types of African races ; distribution of races ; African 
languages ; character of the human element ; Africa and revelation ; 
tribes of dwarfs ; "Africa in a Nutshell " ; various political divisions ; 
variety of products ; steamships and commerce ; as an agricultural 
field ; the lake systems ; immense water-ways ; internal improve- 
ments ; Stanley's observations ; features of Equatorial Africa ; extent 
of the Congo basin ; the Zambesi and Nile systems ; the geographical 
sections of the Congo system ; the coast section ; cataracts, mountains 
and plains ; affluents of the great Congo ; tribes of lower Congo ; 
length of steam navigation ; future pasture grounds of the world ; the 
Niam-Niam and Dinka countries ; empire of Tippoo Tib ; richness of 
vegetable productions ; varieties of animal life ; immense forests and 
gigantic wild beasts ; oils, gums and dyes ; hides, furs, wax and 
ivory ; iron, copper, and other minerals ; the cereals, cotton, spices 
and garden vegetables ; the labor and human resources ; humanitarian 
and commercial problems ; the Lualaba section ; size, population and 
characteristics ; navigable waters ; Livingstone's observations ; tracing 
his footsteps ; animal and vegetable life ; stirring scenes and inci- 
dents ; the Manyuema country ; Lakes Moero and Bangweola ; re- 
sources of forest and stream ; climate and soil ; a remarkable land ; 



10 CONTENTS. 

customs of natives ; village architecture ; river systems and water- 
sheds ; Stanley and Livingstone in the centre of the Continent ; the 
Chambesi section ; head-rivers of the Congo ; the Tanganyika sys- 
tem ; owners of the Congo basin ; Stanley's resume of African re- 
sources ; a glowing picture. 



THE "WHITE MAN m AFEICA, . . , .526 

Egyptian and Eoman Colonists ; Moorish invasion ; Portugese advent ; the 
commercial and missionary approach ; triumphs of late explorers ; 
can the white man live in Africa ? ; colonizing and civilizing ; Stan- 
ley's personal experience ; he has opened a momentous problem ; 
Stanley's melancholy chapters ; effect of wine and beer ; the white man 
must not drink in Africa ; must change and re-adapt his habits ; 
visions of the colonists ; effect of climate ; kind of dress to wear ; the 
best house to build ; how to work and eat ; when to travel ; absurd- 
ities of strangers ; following native examples ; true rules of conduct ; 
Stanley's laws of health; African cold worse than African heat; 
guarding against fatigue ; Dr. Martins code of health ; the white man 
can live in Africa ; future of the white races in the tropics ; the 
struggle of foreign powers ; missionary struggles ; political and com- 
mercial outlook. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, .... 565 

Africa for the Christian; Mohammedan influences; Catholic missions; 
traveler and missionary ; the great revival following Stanley's dis- 
coveries ; Livingstone's work ; perils of missionary life ; history of 
missionary effort ; the Moors of the North ; Abyssinian Christians; 
west-coast missions ; various missionary societies ; character of their 
work ; Bishop Taylor's wonderful work in Liberia, on the Congo, in 
Angola ; nature of his plans ; self-supporting churches ; outline of his 
work ; mission houses and farms ; vivid descriptions and interesting 
letters; cheering reports from pioneers; South African missions; 
opening Bechnana-land ; the Moffats and Coillards ; Livingstone and 
McKenzie ; the Nyassa missions ; on Tanganyika ; the Church in 
Uganda ; murder of Harrington ; the gospel on the east coast ; 
Arabs as enemies ; religious ideas of Africans ; rites and superstitions; 
fetish and devil worship ; importance of the mission field ; sowing 
the seed ; gathering the harvest. 



CONTENTS. * 11 

AFKICA'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, . . . .735 

Arnot's idea of Central Africa ; killed by an elephant ; the puff adder ; the 
Kasai region ; bulls for horses ; a Congo hero ; affection for mothers ; 
caught by a crocodile ; decline of the slave trade ; the natives learn- 
ing ; books in native tongues ; natives as laborers ; understanding of 
the' climate ; Stanley on the Gombe ; the leopard and spring-bock ; 
habits of the antelope ; Christian heroes in Africa ; the boilmg pot 
ordeal ; adventures of a slave ; Arab cruelties ; a lion hunt ; Moham- 
medan influence ; a victim of superstition ; Hervic women ; Tataka 
mission in Liberia ; a native war dance ; African game laws ; Viva 
on the Congo ; rum in Africa ; palavaring ; Emin Pasha at Zanzibar ; 
the Sas-town tribes ; an interrupted journey ; in Monrovia ; a sample 
sermon; the scramble for Africa ; lions pulling down a giraffe; Kib- 
manjars, highest mountains in Africa ; the Kru-coast Missions , a des- 
perate situation ; Henry M. Stanley and Etnin Pasha ; comparison of 

l-U I. ■ r, PP- 800. 

the two pioneers. * ^ 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

COLUMBIA PKESENTING STANLEY TO 
EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNS, Colored 

Plate Frontispiece 

MARCHING THROUGH EQUATORIAL 

AFRICA i 

MAP OF CENTRAL AFRICA 16 and 17 

HENRY M. STANLEY 18 

THE BELLOWING HIPPOPOTAMI 23 

SCENE ON LAKE TANGANYIKA 28 

GATHERING TO MARKET AT NYAN- 

GWE 31 

A SLAVE-STEALER'S REVENGE 33 

BUFFALO AT BAY 37 

FIGHT WITH AN ENRAGED HIPPO- 
POTAMUS 39 

HOUNDING A PORTAGE 43 

A NARROW ESCAPE 45 

WHITE-COLLARED FISH-EAGLES 47 

A TEMPORARY CROSSING 50 

WEAVER-BIRDS' NESTS. 61 

NATIVES' CURIOSITY AT SIGHT OF 

A WHITE MAN 55 

CAPTURING A CROCODILE 57 

LIONS DRAGGING DOWN A BUFFALO 61 

A FUNERAL DANCE 65 

STANLEY'S FIGHT WITH BENGALA 

IN 1877 67 

AintlCAN BLACK-SMITHS 71 



PAGE. 

AFRICAN HEADDRESSES 73 

ORNAMENTED SMOKING PIPE 75 

NIAM-NIAM HAMLET ON THE DIA- 

MOONOO 77 

NIAM-NIAM MINSTREL 78 

NIAM-NIAM WARRIORS 79 

RECEIVING THE BRIDE 81 

A BONGO CONCERT 82 

THE MASSACRE AT NYANGWB 89 

KNIFE-SHEATH, BASKET, WOODEN- 
BOLSTER AND BEE-HIVE 96 

RECEPTION BY AN AFRICAN KING.... 98 
SACRIFICE OF SLAVES, Colored 

Plate 100 

THE SECOND STAGE 165 

HUT COMPLETED IN AN HOUR 166 

CAMP AT KINSHASSA, ON THE CON- 
GO.WITHTIPPOO TIB'S HEADQUAR- 
TERS 169 

SLAVE MARKET 179 

LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY 185 

THE ROSETTA STONE 180 

DELESSEPS 190 

CLEOPATRA 191 

PHAROS LIGHT 192 

ALEXANDER, THE GREAT 193 

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE 194 

THE SERAPEION 195 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

EGYPTIAN GOD 196 

ROMAN CATACOMBS 197 

MASSACRE OF MAMELUKES 199 

VEILED BEAUTY 200 

PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT 203 

INTERIOR OF GREAT PYRAMID.. 204 

TIPPOO TIB'S CANOES GOING DOWN 

THE CONGO, FRONT 136 

TIPPOO TIB'S CANOES GOING DOWN 

THE CONGO, REAR 137 

HENRY M. STANLEY. From a late 

Portrait 138 

EMIN PASHA IN HIS TENT 141 

NIAM-NIAM VILLAGE 143 

CUTTING WOOD AT NIGHT FOR THE 

STEAMERS 148 

INTERVIEW OF MA J. BAETTELOT 
AND MR. JAMESON WITH TIPPOO 

TIB 150 

AN AMBUSCADE 152 

ELEPHANTS DESTROYING VEGETA- 
TION 156 

THE CAPTURED BUFFALO 158 

AFRICAN WARRIORS 159 

ATTACK ON AN ENCAMPMENT 162 

BEGINNING A HUT 164 

STANLEY'S FIRST SIGHT OF EMIN'S 

STEAMER, Colored Plate 164 

THE SPHINX 206 

STATUES OF MEMNON 210 

RUINS IN THEBES 211 

OBELISK OF KARNAK 213 

SPHINX OF KARNAK 214 

GATEWAY AT KARNAK 215 

AMUMMY 216 

TEMPLE AT EDFOU 217 

ISIS ON PHIL^ 218 

TEMPLE COURT, PHILiE 220 

TEMPLE AT IPSAMBUL 221 

TEMPLE OF OSIRIS 222 

TEMPLE OFATHOR 224 

ROCK TOMB OF BENI-HASSAN 226 

EGYPTIAN BRICKFIELD 227 

GROTTOES OF SAMOUN 228 

ACHIEF'S WIFE 231 



PAGE. 

THE "FORTY THIEVES" 232 

MOBBING A CROCODILE 234 

RELEASING SLAVES 236 

ATTACKED BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 237 

A SOUDAN WARRIOR 239 

A NIGHT ATTACK 241 

ELEPHANTS IN TROUBLE 242 

SHAKING FRUIT 244 

TABLE ROCK 245 

NATIVE DANCE 246 

ATTACK BY AMBUSCADE 248 

HUNTING WITH FIRE 250 

RESULTS OF FREEDOM 251 

GORDON AS MANDARIN 253 

PORTRAIT OF GORDON 255 

PORTRAIT OF COLONEL BAKER 266 

MADML'LE TINNE 269 

LADY BAKER 270 

SLAVE-HUNTER'S VICTIM'S 272 

WHITE NILE SWAMPS 274 

CROSSING A SPONGE 276 

PREPARING TO START 279 

A ROYAL JOURNEY 291 

MURCHISON FALLS 299 

HENRY M. STANLEY 303 

STANLEY ON THE MARCH 304 

RUBAGA 813 

SHOOTING A RHINOCEROS 328 

LIVINGSTONE 330 

LION ATTACKS LIVINGSTONE 332 

CUTTING A ROAD 334 

A BANYAN TREE ,339 

ANIMALS ON THE ZAMBESI 342 

THEGONYE FALLS 344 

HUNTING THE ELEPHANT 346 

IN THE RAPIDS 349 

VICTORIA FALLS 351 

CHARGE OF A BUFFALO 355 

NATIVE SLAVE HUNTERS 356 

HUAMBO MAN AND WOMAN 359 

SAMBO WOMAN 359 

GANGUELA WOMEN 359 

BIHE HEAD-DRESS 360 

QUIMBANDE GIRLS 360 

CUBANGO HEAD-DRESS 361 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

LUCHAZE WOMAN 361 

AMBUELLA WOMAN 362 

SOVA DANCE 363 

FORDING THE CHUCHIBI 364 

VICTORIA FALLS (BELOW) 365 

ON TANGANYIKA 368 

ANTHILL 371 

GORILLAS 372 

ASOKOHUNT ■. 374 

A DANGEROUS PRIZE 376 

NYANGWE MARKET 377 

STANLEY AT TANGANYIKA 380 

STANLEY MEETS LIVINGSTONE 381 

AFLOAT ON TANGANYIKA 383 

DEEP-WATER FORDING 386 

LAST DAY'S MARCH 387 

DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE 389 

THE KLVG'S MAGICIANS 391 

A WEIR BRIDGE 395 

FIGHTING HIS WAY 399 

RESCUE OF ZAIDI 402 

ATTACK BY THE BANGALA 405 

IN THE CONGO RAPIDS 409 

' DEATH OF FRANK POCOCK 411 

ZULUS 418 

MY CATTLE WERE SAVED 420 

BUFFALO HUNTERS 421 

VILLAGE SCENE ON LAKE NYASSA.... 427 

STORM ON LAKE NYASSA 433 

AN ELEPHANT CHARGE 437 

NATIVE HUNTERS KILLING SOKOS... 445 

AFRICAN ANT-EATER , 446 

TERRIBLE FIGHT OF AFRICAN MON- 

ARCHS, Colored Plate 446 

QUICHOBO 447 

THE " DEVIL OF THE ROAD," ETC. ... 448 

BUSH-BUCKS 449 

NATIVE TYPES OF SOUTHERN- SOU- 
DAN 452 

BARI OF GONDOKORO 454 

CHASING GIRAFFES 457 

NATIVE RAT-TRAP 463 

AFRICAN HATCHET 464 

NATIVES RUNNING TO WAR 466 

UMBANGI BLACKSMITHS 469 



PAGE. 

NATIVES KILLING AN ELEPHANT 471 

ON A JOURNEY IN THE KALAHARI 

DESERT 479 

WOMEN CARRIERS 4»1 

DRIVING GAME INTO THE HOPO 482 

PIT AT END OF HOPO 481 

CAPSIZED BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS 48G 

HUNTER'S PARADISE 489 

BATLAPIN BOYS THROWING THE 

KIRI ; 491 

PURSUIT OF THE WILD BOAR 493 

RAIDING THE CATTLE SUPPLY 495 

HUNTING ZEBRAS 490 

DANGEROUS FORDING 502 

A YOUNG SOKO 505 

MANYUEMA WOMEN 510 

TYPES OF AFRICAN ANTELOPES 514 

BINKA CATTLE HERD 715 

AFRICAN RHINOCEROS 533 

ELEPHANT UPROOTING A TREE 541 

COL. BAKER'S WAY OF REACHING 

BERBER, 552 

AFRICA METHODIST CONFERENCE... 564 

CHUMA AND SUSI 569 

KING LOBOSSI 570 

WEST AFRICAN MUSSULMAN 579 

AN AFRICAN CHIEF 588 

PORT AND TOWN OF ELMINA 591 

COOMASSIE, THE CAPITAL OF ASH- 

ANTI 595 

CANOE TRAVEL ON THE NIGER 599 

MAP OF LIBERIA 605 

METHODIST PARSONAGE OF AF- 
RICA 606 

AFRICAN VILLAGE AND PALAVER 

TREE 610 

ST. PAULDELOANDA 618 

FOREST SCENE IN ANGOLA 620 

MUNDOMBES AND HUTS 625 

NATIVE GRASS-HOUSE ON THE CON- 
GO 629 

SOME OF BISHOP TAYLOR'S MISSION- 
ARIES 634 

GAR A WAY MISSION HOUSE 643 

MAP OF ANGOLA 647 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

STEAM WAGONS FOE HAULING AT 

VIVI 659 

REED DANCE BY MOONLIGHT 675 

MISSION HOUSE AT VIVI 692 

HUNTING THE GEMBOCK 697 

BISHOP TAYLOK'S MISSIONS 699 

A NATIVE WARRIOR TO5 

THE COILLARD CAMP 708 

AT HOME AFTER THE HUNT 710 

MOFFAT INSTITUTION— KURUMAN.. 712 

MOFFAT'S COURAGE : 715 

NATIVES OF LARI AND MADI IN 

CAMP AT SHOO 718 

TINDER-BOX, FLINT AND STEEL 726 

A CARAVAN BOUND FOR THE IN- 
TERIOR.., 727 



PAGE. 
TRAVEL ON BULL-BACK AND NA- 
TIVE ESCORT 740 

LEOPARD ATTACKING A SPRING- 
BOCK 748 

A LION HUNT 756 

NATIVE WAR DANCE 763 

BUFFALO DEFENDING HER YOUNG.. 771 

SEKHOMS AND HIS COUNSEL 774 

AN INTERRUPTED JOURNEY 780 

LIONS PULLING DOWN A GI- 
RAFFE 786 

HUNTING LIONS 793 

A DESPERATE SITUATION 797 

DINING ON THE BANKS OF THE 
SHIRE 799 




HENRY M. STANLEY,. 



M^ E pTAEEY. 



THE news rang througli tlie world that Stanley was safe. For 
more tlian a year he had been given up as lost in African wilds 
by all but the most hopeful. Even hope had nothing to rest 
upon save the dreamy thought that he, whom hardship and danger 
had so often assailed in vain, would again come out victorious. 

The mission of Henry M. Stanley to find, succor and rescue Emin 
Pasha, if he were yet alive, not only adds to the life of this persis- 
tent explorer and wonderful adventurer one of its most eventful and 
thrilling chapters, but throws more light on the Central African 
situation than any event in connection with the discovery and 
occupation of the coveted areas which he beneath the equatorial 
sun. Its culmination, both in the escape of the hero himself and in 
the success of his perilous errand, to say nothing of its far-reaching 
effects upon the future of "The Dark Continent," opens, as it were, 
a new volume in African annals, and presents a new point of 
departure for scientists, statesmen and philanthropists. 

Space must be found further on for the details of that long, 
exciting and dangerous journey, which reversed all other tracks of 
African travel, yet redounded more than all to the glory of the 
explorer and the advancement of knowledge respecting hidden lati- 
tudes. But here we can get a fair view of a situation, which in all 
its lights and shadows, in its many startling outlines, in its awful 
suggestion of possibilities, is perhaps the most interesting and fate- 
ful now before the eyes of modern civilization. 

It may be very properly asked, at the start, who is this wizard of 
travel, this dashing adventurer, this heroic explorer and rescuer, this 

(19) 



20 SENRY M. STANLEY. 

pioneer of discovery, who goes about in dark, unfathomed places, 
defying iiood and climate, jungle and forest, wild beast and merciless 
savage, and bearing a seemingly charmed life ? 

Who is this genius who has in a decade revolutionized all ancient 
methods of piercing the heart of the unknown, and of revealing the 
mysteries which nature has persistently hugged since " the morning 
stars first sang together in joy ? " 

The story of his life may be condensed into a brief space — brief 
yet eventful as that of a conqueror, moved ever to conquest by sight 
of new worlds* Henry M. Stanley was born in the hamlet of 
Denbigh, in Wales, in 1840. His parents, who bore the name of 
Eowland, were poor; so poor, indeed, that the boy, at the age of 
three years, was virtually on the town. At the age of thirteen, he 
was turned out of the poor-house to shift for himself. Fortunately, 
a part of the discipline had been such as to assure him the elements 
of an English education. The boy must have improved himself 
beyond the opportunities there at hand, for in two or three years 
afterwards, he appeared in North Wales as a school-teacher. Thence 
he drifted to Liverpool, where he shipped as a cabin-boy on a sailing- 
vessel, bomid for New Orleans. Here he drifted about in search of 
employment till he happened upon a merchant and benefactor, by 
the name of Stanley. The boy proved so bright, promising and 
useful, that his employer adopted him as his son. Thus the 
struggling John Eowland became, by adoption, the Henry M.Stanley 
of our narrative. 

Before he came of age, the new father died without a will, and 
his business and estate passed away from the foster child to those 
entitled at law. But for this misfortune, or rather great good 
fortune, he might have been lost to the world in the counting-room 
of a commercial city. He was at large on the world again, full of 
enterprise and the spirit of adventure. 

The civil war was now on, and Stanley entered the Confederate 
army. He was captured by the Federal forces, and on being set at 
hberty threw his fortunes in with his captors by joining the Federal 
navy, the ship being the Ticonderoga, on which he was soon pro- 
moted to the position of Acting Ensign. After the war, he 
developed those powers which made him such an acquisition on 



HENRY M. STANLEY. 21 

influential newspapers. He was of genial disposition, bright in- 
telligence, quick observation and surprising discrimination. His 
judgment of m,en and things was sound. He loved travel and ad- 
venture, was undaunted in the presence of obstacles, persistent in 
every task before him, and possessed shrewd insight into human 
character and projects. His pen was versatile and his style adapted 
to the popular taste. No man was ever better equipped by nature 
to go anywhere and make the most of every situation. In a single 
year he had made himself a reputation by his trip through Asia 
Minor and other Eastern countries. In 1866 he was sent by the 
New York Herald^ as war correspondent, to Abyssinia. The next 
year he was sent to Spain by the same paper, to write up the 
threatened rebelliolT there. In 1869 he was sent by the Herald to 
Africa to find the lost Livingstone. 

A full account of this perilous journey will be found elsewhere in 
this volume, in connection with the now historic eiforts of that 
gallant band of African pioneers who immortalized themselves prior 
to the founding of the Congo Free State. Suffice it to say here, 
that it took him two years to find Livingstone at Ujiji, upon the 
great lake of Tanganyika, which lake he explored, in connection 
with Livingstone, and at the same time rnade important visits to 
most of the powerful tribes that surround it. He returned to civil- 
ization, but remained only a short while, for by 1874 he' was again 
in the unknown wilds, and this time on that celebrated journey 
which brought him entirely across the Continent from East to West, 
revealed the wonderful water resources of tropical Africa and gave 
a place on the map to that remarkable drainage system which finds 
its outlet in the Congo river. 

Says the Eev. Geo. L. Taylor of this march ; " It was an under- 
taking which, for grandeur of conception, and for sagacity, vigor, 
and completeness of execution, must ever rank among the marches 
of the greatest generals and the triumphs of the greatest discoverers 
of history. No reader can mentally measure and classify this exploit 
who does not recall the prolonged struggles that have attended the 
exploration of all great first-class rivers^a far more difficult work, 
in many respects, than ocean sailing. We must remember the 
wonders and sufferings of Orellana's voyages (though in a brigan- 



22 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

tine, built on the Rio Napo, and with armed soldiers) down that 
" Mediterranean of Brazil," the Amazon, from the Andes to the 
Atlantic, in 1540. We must recall the voyage of Marquette and 
Johet down the Mississippi in 1673 ; the toils of Park and Landers 
on the Niger, 1795-1830 ; and of Speke and Baker on the Nile, 
1860-1864, if we would see how the deed of Stanley surpasses them 
all in boldness and generalship, as it promises also to surpass them 
in immediate results. 

The object of the voyage was two-fold : first, to finish the work 
of Speke and Grant in exploring the great Nile lakes ; and, secondly, 
to strike the great Lualaba where Livingstone left it, and follow it 
to whatever sea or ocean it might lead." 

And again : — ■" The story of the descent of the great river is an 
Iliad in itself. Through hunger and weariness ; through fever, 
dysentery, poisoned arrows, and small-pox; through bellowing 
hippopotami, crocodiles, and monsters ; past mighty tributaries, them- 
selves great first-class rivers ; down roaring rapids, whirlpools, and 
cataracts ; through great canoe-fleets of saw-teethed, fighting, gnash- 
ing cannibals fiercer than tigers ; through thirty-two battles on land 
and river, often against hundreds of great canoes, some of them 
ninety feet long and with a hundred spears on board ; and, at last, 
through the last fearful journey by land and water down the tremen- 
dous canon below Stanley Pool, still they went on, and on, 
relentlessly on, till finally they got within hailing and helping dis- 
tance of Boma, on the vast estuary by the sea ; and on August 9, 
1877, the news thrilled the civiHzed world that Stanley was saved, 
and had connected Livingstone's Lualaba -with. Tuckey's Congo! 
After 7,000 miles' wanderings in 1,000 days save one from Zanzibar, 
and four times crossing the Equator, he looked white men in the face 
once more, and was startled that they were so pale! Black had 
become the normal color of the human face. Thus the central 
stream of the second vastest river on the globe, next to the Amazon 
m magnitude, was at last explored, and a new and unsuspected realm 
was disclosed in the interior of a prehistoric continent, itself the 
oldest cradle of civihzation. The delusions of ages were swept 
away at one masterful stroke, and a new world was discovered by a 
new Columbus in a canoe." 



24 HENKY M. STANLEY. 

It was on that memorable march that he came across the wily 
Arab, Tippoo Tib, at the flourishing market-town of Nyangwe, who 
was of so much service to Stanley on his descent of the Lualaba 
(Congo) from Nyangwe to Stanley Falls, 1,000 miles from Stanley 
Pool, but who has since figured in rather an unenviable light in 
connection with efforts to introduce rays of civilization into the 
fastnesses of the Upper Congo. This, as well as previous journeys 
of Stanley, established the fact that the old method of approaching 
the heart of the Continent by desert coursers, or of threading its 
hostile mazes without armed help, was neither expeditious nor 
prudent. It revolutionized exploration, by compelling respect from 
hostile man and guaranteeing immunity from attack by wild beast. 

For nearly three years Stanley was lost to the civilized world in 
this trans-continental journey. Its details, too, are narrated else- 
where in this volume, with all its vicissitude of 7,000 miles of zig- 
zag wandering and his final arrival on the Atlantic coaat — the 
wonder of all explorers, the admired of the scientific world. 

Such was the value of the information he brought to light in 
this eventful journey, such the wonderful resource of the country 
through which he passed after plunging into the depths westward of 
Lake Tanganyika, and such the desirability of this new and western 
approach to the heart of the continent, not only for commercial 
but political and humanitarian purposes, that the cupidity of 
the various colonizing nations, especially of Europe, was instantly 
awakened, and it was seen that unless proper steps were taken, there 
must soon be a struggle for- the possession of a territory so vast and 
with such possibilities of empire. To obviate a calamity so dire 
as this, the happy scheme was hit upon to carve out of as much of 
the new discovered territory as would be likely to embrace the 
waters of the Congo and control its ocean outlet, a mighty State 
which was to be dedicated for ever to the civilized nations of the 
world. 

In it there should be no clash of foreign interests, but perfect 
reciprocity of trade and free scope for individual or corporate 
enterprise without respect to nationahty. The king of Belgium 
took a keen interest in the project, and through his influence other 
powers of Europe, and even the United States, became enhsted. A 



HENEY M. STANLEY. 25 

plan of the proposed State was drafted and it soon received inter- 
national ratification. The new power was to be known as the 
Congo Free State, and it was to be, for the time being, under con- 
trol of an Administrator General. To the work of founding this 
State, giving it metes and bounds, securing its recognition 
among the nations, removing obstacles to its approach, establishing 
trading posts and developing its commercial features, Stanley now 
addressed himself. We have been made familiar with his plans 
for securing railway communication between the mouth of the 
Congo and Stanley Pool, a distance of nearly 200 miles inland, so 
as to overcome the difficult, if not impossible, navigation of the 
swiftly rushing river. We have also heard of his successful efforts 
to introduce navigation, by means of steamboats, upon the more 
placid waters of the Upper Congo and upon its numerous affluents. 
Up until the year 1886, the most of his time was devoted to fixing 
the .infant empire permanently on the map of tropical Africa 
and giving it identity among the political and industrial powers 
of earth. 

In reading of Stanley and studying the characteristics of his work 
one naturally gravitates to the thought, that in all things respecting 
him, the older countries of Europe are indebted to the genius of the 
newer American institution. We camiot yet count upon the direct 
advantages of a civilized Africa upon America. In a political and 
commercial sense our activity cannot be equal to that of Europe on 
account of our remoteness, and because we are, as yet, but little 
more than colonists ourselves. Africa underlies Europe, is contigu- 
ous to it, is by nature situated so as to become an essential part of 
that mighty earth-tract which the sun of civilization is, sooner of 
later, to illuminate. Besides Europe has a need for African acquition 
and settlement which America has not. Her areas are small, her 
population has long since reached the point of overflow, her money 
is abundant and anxious for inviting foreign outlets, her manufactur- 
ing centres must have new cotton and jute fields, not to mention 
supplies of raw material of a thousand kinds, her crowded establish- 
ments must have the cereal foods, add to all these the love of empire 
which like a second nature with monarchical rulers, and the desire 
for large landed estates which is a characteristic of titled nobility, and 



26 HENRY M. STANLEY. 

you have a few of tlie inducements to African conquest and coloniza- 
tion which, throw Europe in the foregrond. Yet while all these are 
true, it is doubtful if, with all her advantages of wealth, location and 
resource, she has done as much for the evangelization of Africa as 
has America. JSTo, nor as much for the systematic and scientific 
opening of its material secrets. And this brings us to the initial 
idea of this paragraph again. Though Stanley was a foreign waif, 
cast by adverse circumstances on our shores, it seemed to require 
the robust freedom and stimulating opportunities of republican 
institutions to awaken and develop in him the qualities of the strong 
practical and venturesome man he became. Monarchy may not fetter 
thought, but it does restrain actions. It grooves and ruts human 
energy by laws of custom and by arbitrary rules of caste. It would 
have repressed a man like Stanley, or limited him to its methods. He 
would have been a subject of some dynasty or a victim of some con- 
ventionahsm. Or if he had grown too large for repressive boundaries 
and had chosen to burst them, he would have become a revolutionist 
worthy of exile, if his head had not already come to the block 
But under republican institutions his energies and ambitions had free 
play. Every faculty, every peculiarity of the man grew and 
developed, till he became a strong, original and unique force in the 
line of adventure and discotfery. This out-crop of manhood and 
character, is the tribute of our free institutions to European mon- 
archy. The tribute is not given grudgingly. Take it and welcome. 
Use it for your own glory and aggrandizement. Let crowned-heads 
bow before it^ and titled aristocracy worship it, as they appropriate 
its worth and wealth. But let it not be forgotten, that the American 
pioneering spirit has opened Africa wider in ten years than all the 
efforts of all other nations in twenty. 



COfll^O Fp ^Tp. 



IN 1877, Stanley wrote to tlie London Daily Telegraph as follows :— 
" I feel convinced that tlie question of this mighty water-way 
(the Congo) will become a pohtical one in time. As yet, how- 
ever, no European power seems to have put forth the right of control. 
Portugal claims it because she discovered its mouth ; but the great 
powers, England, America, and France, refuse to recognize her right. 
If it were not that I fear to damp any interest you may have in 
Africa, or in this magnificent stream, by the length of my letter, I 
could show you very strong reasons why it would be a politic deed 
to settle this momentous question immediately. I could prove to you 
that the power possessing the Congo, despite the cataracts, would 
absorb to itself the trade of the whole enormous basin behind. 
This river is and will be the grand highway of commerce to West 
Central Africa." • 

"When Stanley wrote this, with visions of a majestic Congo Em- 
pire flitting through his brain, he was more than prophetic ; at least, 
he knew more of the impulse that was then throbbing and permeat- 
ing Europe than any other man. He had met Gambetta, the great 
French statesman, who in so many words had told him that he had 
opened up a new continent to the world's view and had given an 
impulse to scientific and philanthrophic enterprise which could not but 
have material effect on the progress of mankind. He knew what the 
work of the International Association, which had his plans for a 
Free State under consideration, had been, up to that hour, and were 
likely to be in the future. He was aware of th-e fact that the 
English Baptist missionaries had already pushed their way up the 
Congo to a point beyond the Equator, and that . the American 
Baptists were working side by side with their English brethren. He 

(27) 



CONGO FREE STATE. 29 

knew tliat the London and Cliurcb. Missionary Societies had planted 
their flags on Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, and that the work of 
the Free Kirk of Scotland was reaching out from Lake Nyassa to 
Tanganyika. He had seen Pinto and Weissman crossing Africa 
and making grand discoveries in the Portuguese possessions south of 
the Congo. De Brazza had given France a West African Empire ; 
Germany had annexed all the vacant territory in South-west Africa, 
to say nothing of her Bast African enterprises ; Italy. had taken up 
the Eed Sea coast ; Great Britian had possessed the Niger delta ; 
Portugal already owned 700,000 square miles south of the Congo, to 
which no boundaries had been affixed. 

Stanley knew even more than this. His heroic nature took no 
stock in the "horrible climate" of Africa, which he had tested for, 
so many years. He was fully persuaded that the plateaus of the 
Upper Congo and the central continent were healthier than the 
lands of Arkansas, which has doubled its population in twenty-five 
years. He treated the coast as but a thin line, the mere shell of an 
egg, yet he saw it dotted with settlements along every available 
water- way-^the Kwanza, Congo, Kwilu, Ogowai, Muni, Camaroom, 
Oil, Niger, Eoquelle, Gambia and Senegal rivers. He asked himself. 
What is left? And the answer came — ^Nothing, except the basins 
of the four mighty streams — the Congo, the Nile, the Niger and the 
Shari (Shire), all of which require railways to link them with the 
sea. His projected railway from Yivi, around the cataracts of the 
Congo, to Stanley Pool, 147 miles long, would open nearly 11,000 
miles of navigable water-way, and the trade of 43,000,000 people, 
worth millions of dollars annually. 

The first results of Stanley's efforts in behalf of a "Free Congo 
State" were, as already indicated, the formation of an international 
association, whose president was Colonel Strauch, and to whose 
existence and management the leading powers of the world gave 
their assent. It furnished the means for his return to Africa, with 
plenty of help and with facilities for navigating the Congo, in order 
to establish towns, conclude treaties with the natives, take possession 
of the lands, "fix metes and bounds and open commerce — ^in a word, 
to found a State according to his ideal, and firmly fix it among the 
recognized empires of the world. 



30 CONGO FREE STATE. 

In January, 1879, Stanley started for Africa, under tlie above aus- 
pices and witli the above intent. But instead of sailing to the 
Congo direct, he went to Zanzibar on the east coast, for the purpose 
of enlisting a force of native pioneers and carriers, aiming as much 
as possible to secure those who had accompanied him on his pre- 
vious trips across the Continent and down the river, whose ascent 
he was about to make. Such men he could trust, besides, their 
experience wojild be of great avail in so perilous an enterprise. A 
second object of his visit to Zanzibar was to organize expeditions 
for the purpose of pushing westward and establishing permanent 
posts as far as the Congo. One of these, under Lieut. Cambier, 
established a line of posts stretching almost directly westward from 
Zanzibar to Nyangwe, and through a friendly country. With this 
work, and the enlistment of 68 Zanzibaris for his Congo exjoedition, 
three-fourths of whom had accompanied him across Africa, he was 
engaged until May, 1879, when he sailed for the Congo, via the Eed 
Sea and Mediterranean, and arrived at Banana Point at the mouth 
of the Congo, on Aug. 14, 1879, as he says, " to ascend the great 
river with the novel mission of sowing along its banks civilized set- 
tlements, to peacefully conquer and subdue it, to mold it in harmony 
with modern ideas into national States, within whose limits the 
European merchant shall go hand in hand. with the dark African 
trader, and justice and law and order shall prevail, and murder and 
lawlessness and the cruel barter of slaves shall forever cease." 

Once at Banana Point, all hands trimmed for 'the ~f fOpical- heat, 
teeads were shorn close, heavy clothing was changed for soft, Hght 
flannels, hats gave place to ventilated caps, the food was changed 
from meat to vegetable, hquors gave place to coffee or tea — for be 
it known a simple glass of champagne may prove a prelude to a 
sun-stroke in African lowlands. The officers of the expedition here 
met— an international group indeed,— an American (Stanley), two 
Englishmen, five Belgians, two Danes, one Frenchman. The steamer 
Barga, had long since arrived from Europe with a precious assort- 
ment of equipments, among which were building material and a 
flotilla of light steam launches. One of these, the En Avant, was 
the first to .discover Lake Leopold II, explore the Biyere and 
reach Stanley Falls. 



31 




32 CONGO FREE STATE. 

In seven days, August 21st, tlae expedition was under way, braving 
the yellow, giant stream with, steel cutters, driven by steam. The 
river is three miles wide, from 60 to 900 feet deep, and with a cur- 
rent of six miles an hour. On either side are dark walls of man- 
grove and palm, through which course lazy, unknown creeks, alive 
only with the slimy reptilia of the coast sections. For miles the 
course is through the serene river flood, fringed by a leafy, yet melan- 
choly nature. Then a cluster of factories, known as Kissinga, is 
passed, and the river is broken into channels by numerous islands, 
heavily wooded. Only the deeper channels are now navigable, and 
selecting the right ones the fleet arrives at Wood P-^^'nt, a Dutch trad- 
ing town, with several factories. Up to this point, "the river has had 
no depth of less than 16 feet, increased to 22 feet during the rainy 
season. The mangrove forests have disappeared, giving place to the 
statelier palms. Grassy plains begin to stretch invitingly down to 
the water's edge. In the distance high ridges throw up their serrated 
outlines, and seemingly converge toward the river, as a look is taken 
ahead. Soon the wonderful Fetish Eocks are sighted, which all 
pilots approach with dread, either through superstition or because 
the deep current is broken by miniature whirlpools. One of these 
granite rocks stands on a high elevation and resembles a light-house. 
It is the Limbu-Li-N"zambi — "Finger of God" — of the natives. 

Boma is now reached. It is the principal emporium of trade on 
the Congo — the buying and selling mart for Banana Point, and con- 
nected with it by steamers. There is nothing picturesque hereabouts, 
yet Boma has a history as old as the slave trade in America, and as 
dark and horrible as that traffic was infamous. Here congregated 
the white slave dealers for over two centuries, and here they 
gathered the dusky natives by the thousand, chained them in gangs 
by the dozen or score, forced them into the holds of their slave-ships, 
and carried them away to be sold in the Brazils, West Indies and 
North America. Whole fleets of slave-ships have anchored off 
Boma, with their loads of rum, their buccaneer crews and blood- 
thirsty officers, intent on human booty. Happily, all is now changed, 
and the Arab is the only recognized slave-stealer in Africa. Boma 
has several missions, and her traders are on good terms with the 
surrounding tribes. Her market is splendid, and here may be found 



34 CONGO FREE STATE. 

in plenty, oranges, citrons, limes, papaws, pine-apples, sweet potatoes, 
tomatoes, onions, turnips, cabbage, beets, carrots and lettuce, besides 
the meat of bullocks, sheep, goats and fowls. 

After establishing a headquarters at Boma, under the auspices of 
the International Commission, the expedition proceeded to Mussuko, 
where the heavier steamer, Albion, was dismissed, and where all the 
stores for future use were collected. This point is 90 miles from the 
sea. Kiver reconnoissances were made in tho lighter steamers, and 
besides the information picked up, the navigators were treated to a 
hippopotamus hunt which resulted in the capture of one giant 
specimen, upon whose back one of the Danish skippers mounted in 
triumph, that he might have a thrilling paragraph for his next letter 
to Copenhagen. 

Above Boma the Congo begins to narrow between verdure-clad 
hills rising from 300 to 1100 feet, and navigation becomes more 
difficult, though channels of 15 to 20 feet in depth are found. 
Further on, toward Vivi is a splendid reach of swift, deep water, 
with an occasional whirlpool, capable of floating the largest steam- 
ship. Vivi was to be a town founded under the auspices of the 
International Commission — an entrepot for an extensive country. 
The site was pointed out by De-de-de, chief of the contiguous tribe, 
who seemed to have quite as keen a commercial eye as his European 
visitors. Hither were gathered five of the most powerful chiefs of 
the vicinity, who were pledged, over draughts of fresh palm-juice, 
to recognize the newly established emporium. It is a salubrious 
spot, surrounded by high plateaus, affording magnificent views. 
From its lofty surroundings one may sketch a future, which shall 
abound in well worn turnpike roads, puffing steamers, and columns 
of busy trades-people. As Vivi is, the natives are by no means 
the worst sort of people. They wear a moderate amount of (doth- 
ing, take readily to traffic, keep themselves well supplied with 
marketing, and use as weapons the old fashioned flint-lock guns 
they have secured in trade with Europeans. At the grand assem- 
blage of chiefs, one of the, dusky seniors voiced the unanimous 
sentiment thus : — " We, the big, chiefs of Vivi are glad to see 
the mundele (trader). If the mundele has any wish to settle in. 
this country, as Massala (the interpreter) informs us, we will wel- 



CONGO FREE STATE. 35 

come him, and will be great friends to him. Let the mundele speak 
his mind freely." 

Stanley replied that he was on a mission of peace, that he wanted 
to establish a commercial emporium, with the right to make roads 
to it and improve the surrounding country, and that he wanted free 
and safe intercourse with the people for all who chose to come there. 
If they would give guarantees to this effect, he would pay them for 
the right. Then began a four hour's chaffer which resulted in the 
desired treaty. Apropos to this deal Stanley says : — -" In the man- 
agement of a bargain I should back the Congo native against Jew 
or Christian, Parsee, or Banyan, in all the round world. I have 
there seen a child of eight do more tricks of trade in an hour than 
the cleverest European trader on the Congo could do in a month. 
There is a little boy at Bolobo, aged six, named Lingeuji, who 
would make more profit out of a pound's worth of cloth than an 
English boy of fifteen would out of ten pound's worth. . Therefore 
when I write of the Congo natives, Bakougo, Byyanzi or Bateke 
tribes, I associate them with an inconceivable amount of natural 
shrewdness and a power of indomitable and untiring chaffer." 

Thus Yivi was acquired, and Stanley brought thither all his boats 
and supplies. He turned all his working force, a hundred in 
number, to lajdng out streets to the top of the plateau, where houses 
and stores were erected. The natives rendered assistance and were 
much interested in the smashing and removal of the boulders with 
the heavy sledges. They called Stanley Bula Matari — Roc]: 
Breaker — a title he came to be known bv on the whole line of the 
Congo, up to Stanley Falls. Gardens were planted, shade trees were 
set out, and on January 8, 1880, Stanley wrote home that he had a 
site prepared for a city of 20,000 people, at the head of navigation 
on the lower Congo, and a center for trade with a large country, 
when suitable roads were built. He left it in charge of one of his 
own men, as governor, or chief, and started on his tedious and more 
perilous journey through the hills and valleys of the cataract region. 
This journey led him through various tribes, most of whom lived 
in neat villages, and v/ere well supplied "with live animals, garden 
produce and cotton clothi-ng'.- -They were friendly and disposed to 
encourage him in his enterprise of making a good commercial road 



36 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

from Yivi, around the cataracts, to some suitable station above, 
provided tliey were well paid for tlie right of way. A melancholy 
fact in connection with many of these tribes is that they have been 
decimated by internecine wars, mostly of the olden time, Avhen the 
catching and selling of slaves was a business, and that thereby 
extensive tracts of good land have been abandoned to wild game, 
elephants, buffaloes, water-buck and antelopes, which breed and 
roam at pleasure. It was nothing unusual to see herds of half a 
dozen elephants luxuriously spraying their sunburnt backs in friendly 
pools, nor to startle whole herds of buffaloes, which would scamper 
away, with tails erect, for safety — cowards all, except when wounded 
and at bay, and then a very demon, fuller of fight than a tiger and 
even more dangerous than the ponderous elephant. 

Owing to the fact that the Congo threads its cataract section 
with immense falls and through deep gorges, this part of Stanley's 
journey had to be made at some distance from its channel, and 
with only glimpses of its turbid waters, over lofty ridges, through 
deep grass-clothed or densely forested valleys, and across various 
tributaries, abounding in hippopotami and other water animals. 
Many fine views were had from the mountains of Ngoma. He 
decided that a road could be made from Yivi to Isangila, a distance 
of 52 miles, and that from Isangila navigation could be resumed on the 
Congo. And this road he now proceeded to make, for, though years 
before in his descent of the river he had dragged many heavy canoes for 
miles overland, and around similar obstructions, he now had heavier 
craft to carry, and objects of commerce in view. He had 106 men at 
his disposal at Vivi, who fell to work with good will, cutting down 
the tall grass, removing, boulders, corduroying low grounds, bridg- 
ing streams, and carrying on engineering much the same as if they 
were in a civilized land — the natives helping when so inclined. 
The workmen had their own supplies, which were supplemented 
by game, found in abundance, and were molested only by the 
snakes which were disturbed by the cutting and digging ; of these, 
the spitting snake was the most dangerous, not because of its bite^ 
but because it ejects its poison in a stream from a distance of six 
feet into the face and eyes of its enemy. The ill effects of such an 
injection lasts for a week or more. The tall grass was infested 



gg Congo free state. 

with the wHp-snake, the bulky python was found near the streams, 
while a pecuhar green snake inhabited the trees of the stony sections 
and occasionally dangled in unpleasant proximity to the faces of the 
workmen. 

As this road-making went on, constant communication was kept 
up with Yivi. The steamers were mounted on heavy wagons, and 
were drawn along by hand-power as the road progressed. Stores 
and utensils of every kind were similarly loaded and transported. 
The mules and asses, belonging to the expedition, were of course 
brought into requisition, but in nearly all cases their strength had 
to be supplemented by the workmen. Accidents were not infre- 
quent, but fatal casualties were rare. Some died of disease, yet the 
general health was good. One of the coast natives fell a victim to 
an enraged hippopotamus, which crushed him and his bark as 
readily as an egg-shell. 

Thus the road progressed to Makeya Manguba, a distance of 22 
miles from Yivi, and after many tedious trips to and fro, all the equip- 
ments of the expedition were brought to that point. The time con- 
sumed had been about five months — ^from March to August. Here 
the steel lighters were brought into requisition, and the equipments 
were carried by steam to a new camp on the Bundi river, where 
road making was even more difficult, because the forests were now 
dense and the woods — -mahogany, teak, guaiacum and bombax — 
very hard. Fortunately the natives kept up a fine supply of sweet 
potatoes, bananas, fowls and eggs, which supplemented the usual 
rice diet of the workmen. It was with the greatest hardship that 
the road was completed between the Luenda and Lulu rivers, so 
thick were the boulders and so hard the material which composed 
them. The Europeans all fell sick, and even the natives languished. 
At length the Bula river was reached, 16 miles from the Bundi, 
where the camp was supplied \nth an abundance of- buffalo and 
antelope meat. 

The way must now go either over the steep declivities of the 
ISTgoma mountains, or around their jagged edges, where they abut on 
the roaring Congo. The latter was chosen, and for days the entire 
force were engaged in cutting a roadway along the sides of the 
bluffs. This completed, a short stretch of navigable water brought 



40 CONGO FREE STATE. 

them to Isangila, 52 miles from Vivi. It was now January 2, 1881. 
Thitlier all tlie supplies were brouglit, and the boats were scraped 
and painted, ready for the long journey to Manyanga. Stanley 
estimated that all the goings and comings on this 52 miles of road- 
way would foot up 2,352 miles of travel; and it had cost the death 
of six Europeans and twenty-two natives, besides the retirement of 
thirteen invalids. Yerily, it was a year dark with trial and unusual 
toil. But the cataracts had been overcome, and rest could be had 
against further labors and dangers. 

The Httle steel lighters are now ready for their precious loads. 
In all, there has been collected at Isangila full fifty tons of freight, 
besides wagons and the traveling luggage of 118 colore:! carriers 
and attendants and pioneers. It is a long, long way to Manyanga, 
but if the river proves friendly, it ought to be reached in from 
seventy to eighty days. The Congo is three-quarters of a mile wide, 
with rugged shores and tumultuous currents. The little steamers 
have to feel their way, hugging the shores in order to avoid the 
swift waters of the outer channels, and starting every now and then 
with their paddles the drowsy crocodiles from their habitat. The 
astonished creatures dart forward, at first, as if to attack the- boats, 
but of a sudden disappear in the flood, to rise again in the rear and 
give furious chase at a distance they deem quite safe. This part of 
the river is known as Long Eeach. These reaches, or stretches, 
some of them five miles long, are expansions of the river, between 
points of greater fall, and are more easily navigable than where the 
stream narrows or suddenly turns a point. The canon appearance of 
the shores now begins to disappear, and extensive grass-grown plains 
stretch occasionally to the water's edo-e. 

At the camp near Kololo Point, where the river descends swiftly, 
the expedition was met by Crudington and Bentley, two missionaries, 
who were fleeing in a canoe from the natives of Kinshassa, wher^3 
they had been surrounded by an armed mob and threatened with 
their lives. They were given protection and sent to Isangila. Stan- 
ley had now to mourn the loss of his most trustworthy messen- 
ger, Soudi. He had gone back to Yivi for the European mail and 
on the way had met a herd of buffaloes ; selecting the finest, he 
discharged his rifle at it and killed it, as he thought." But when he 



CONaO FREE STATE. 41 

rushed up to cut its jugular vein, the beast arose in fury, and tossed 
and mangled poor Soudi so that he died soon after his companions 
came to his rescue. 

Stretch after stretch of the turbulent Congo is passed, and camp 
after camp has been formed and vacated. At all camps, where 
practicable, the natives have been taken into confidence, and the 
intent of the expedition made known. With hardly an exception 
they fell into the spirit of the undertaking, and gladly welcomed the 
opportunity to open commerce with the outer world. . The ISTzambi 
rapids now ofi'er an obstacle to navigation, but soon a safe channel 
is found, and a magnificent stretch of water leads to a bay at the 
mouth of the Kwilu river, a navigable stream, with a depth of 
eight feet, a width of forty yards and a current of five miles an 
hour. The question of food now became pressing. Each day the 
banks of the river were scoured for rations, by gangs of six men, 
whose duty it was to purchase and bring in cassava, bread, bananas, 
Indian corn, sweet potatoes, etc., not forgetting fowls, eggs, goats, etc., 
for the Europeans. But these men found it hard work- to obtain 
fair supplies. 

By April 7th the camp was at Kimbanza opposite the mouth of 
the Lukunga and in the midst of a land of plenty, and especially of 
crocodiles, which fairly infest the river and all the tributaries 
thereof. Here, too, are myriads of little fish like minnows, or 
sardines, which the natives catch in great quantities, in nets, and 
prepare for food by baking them in the sun. The population is 
quite dense, and of the same amiable mood, the same desire to 
traffic, and the same willingness to enter into treaties, as that on the 
river below. 

Further up are the ISTdunga people and the Ndunga Eapids, where 
the river is penned in between high, forbidding walls and where 
nature has begrudged life of every kind to the scene. But out 
among the villages all is different. The people are thrifty and 
sprightly. Their markets are full of sweet potatoes, eggs, fish, 
palm-wine, etc., and the shapely youths, male and female, indulge 
in dances which possess as much poetry of motion as the terpsi- 
chorean performances of the more highly favored children of 
civilization. 



42 CONGO FREE STATE. 

The next station was Manyanga, a destination indeed, for here is 
a formidable cataract, which defies the Hght steamers of the expedi- 
tion, and there will have to be another tedious portage to the open 
waters of Stanley Pool. It was now May 1, 1881. Manyanga is 
1-40 miles from Yivi. The natives were friendly but adverse to 
founding a trading town in their midst." Yet Stanley resolved that 
it should be a station and supply point for the 95 miles still to be 
traversed to Stanley Pool. He fell sick here, of fever, and lay for 
many days unconscious. Such was his prostration, when he returned 
to his senses, that he despaired of recovery, and bade his attendants 
farewell. 

In the midst of hardship which threatened to break his expedi- 
tion up at this point, he was rejoiced to witness the arrival of a 
relief expedition from below, other boats, plenty of provisions and 
a corps of workmen. Then the site of the town of Manyanga was 
laid out, and a force of men was employed to build a road around 
the cataract and haul the boats over it. This point is the center of 
exchange for a wide territory. Slaves, ivory, rubber, oil, pigs, 
sheep, goats and fowls are brought in abundance to the market, and 
it is a favorite stopping-place for caravans from the mouth of the 
Congo to Stanley Pool. But the natives are crusty, and several 
times Stanley had to interfere to stop the quarrels which arose 
between his followers and the insolent market people. At length 
the town was fortified, provisioned and garrisoned, and the expedi- 
tion was on its way to Stanley Pool, around a portage of six miles 
in length, and again into the Congo ; then up and up, with difficult 
navigation, past the mouths of inflowing rivers, around other 
tedious portages, through quaint and curious tribes, whose chiefs 
grow more and more fantastic in dress and jealous of power, till 
they even come to rival that paragon of strutting kingliness, the 
famed Mtesa of Uganda. Though not hostile, they were by no 
means amiable, having made a recent cession of the country on the 
north of the Congo to French explorers. King Itsi, or Ngalyema, 
was among the most powerful of them and upon him was to turn 
the fortune of the expedition in the waters of the upper Congo. 
Stanley made the happy discovery that this Ngalyema was the Itsi, 
of whom he had made a blood brother on his descent of the river, 



43 




44 COKGO FKEE STATE. 

and this circumstance soon paved tlie way to friendship and protec- 
tion, despite the murmurs and threats of neighboring chiefs. 

The last king of note, before reaching Stanley Pool, was Makoko, 
who favored the breaking of rocks and the cutting down of trees in 
order to pass boats over the country, but who wanted it understood 
that his people owned the country and did not intend to part "with 
their rights without due consideration. Scarcely had a treaty been 
struck with him when Stanley was informed that ISTgalyema was on 
his track with two hundred warriors, and determined to wipe out 
his former negotiations with blood. Already the sound of his war- 
drums and the shouts of his soldiers were heard in the distance. 
Stanley ordered his men to arm quickly and conceal themselves in 
the bush, but to rush out frantically and make a mock attack when 
they heard the gong sounding. Ngalyema appeared upon the scene 
with his forces and informed Stanley that he could not go to Kintamo, 
for Makoko did not own the land there. After a long talk, the 
stubborn chief left the tent in anger and with threats of extermination 
on his lips ; but as he passed the inclosure, he was attracted by the 
gong, swinging in the wind. 

"What is this?" he asked. 

"It is fetish," replied Stanley. 

"Strike it; let me hear it," he exclaimed. 

"Oh, Ngalyema, I dare not; it is the war fetish." 

"No, no, no! I tell you to strike." 

"Well, then!" 

Here Stanley struck the gong with all his force, and in an instant 
a hundred armed men sprang from the bush and rushed with 
demoniac yells upon the haughty chief and his followers, keeping up 
all the while such demonstrations as would lead to the impression 
that the next second would bring an annihilating volley from their 
guns. The frightened king clung to Stanley for protection. His 
followers iled in every direction. 

"Shall I strike the fetish again?" inquired Stanley. 

"No, no! don't touch it!" exclaimed the now subdued king; and 
the broken treaty was solemnized afresh over a gourd of palm-wine. 
Makoko was jolly over the discomfiture of his powerful rival. 




A NARROW ESCAPE. (45.) 



46 CONGO FREE STATE. 

These Kintamo people, sometimes called tlie Wambunda, now 
gave to Stanley some 78 carriers and greatly assisted him in mak- 
ing his last twelve miles of roadway and in conveying his boats and 
wagons over it. The expedition was now in sight of Stanley 
Pool, beyond the region of the cataracts, and at the foot of naviga- 
tion on the upper Congo. It was now Dec. 3, 1881, the boats were 
all brought up and launched in smooth water, a station was founded, 
and the expedition prepared for navigation on that stupendous 
stretch of water between Stanley Pool and Stanley Falls. 

The Kintamo station was called Leopoldville, in honor of king 
Leopold of Belgium, European patron of the Congo Free State, 
and to whose generosity more than that of any other the entire 
expedition was due. It was the most important town thus far 
founded on the Congo, for it was the center of immense tribal 
influence, a base of operations for 5000 miles of navigable waters, 
and a seat of plenty if the chiefs remained true to their concessions. 
It was therefore well protected with a block-house and garrison, 
while the magazine was stocked with food and ammunition. 
Gardens were laid out and planted, stores were erected in which 
goods were displayed, and soon Stanley had the pleasure of seeing 
the natives bringing ivory and marketing for traffic. The stay of the 
expedition at Leopoldville was somewhat lengthy and it was April, 
19, 1882, before it embarked for the upper Congo, with its 49 colored 
men, four whites, and 129 carrier-loads of equipments. 

The boats passed Bamu Island, 14 miles in length, which occupies 
the center of Stanley Pool, the stream being haunted by hippopot- 
ami and the interior of the island by elephants and buffaloes, adven- 
tures with which were common. The shores are yet bold and 
wooded, monkeys in troops fling themselves from tree to tree, 
white-collared fish eagles dart with shrill screams across the wide 
expanse of waters, and crocodiles stare wildly at the approaching 
steamers, only to dart beneath them as they near and then to 
reappear in their wake. Says Stanley, of this part of the river: 

"From the Behze to Omaha, on the hue of the Mississippi, I 
have seen nothing to excite me to poetic madness. The Hudson is 
a trifle better in its upper part. The Indus, the Ganges, the 
Irrawaddy, the Euphrates, the Nile, the Niger, the La Platte, the 



47 




48 CONGO FREE STATE. 

Amazon— I tliink of them all, and I can see no beauty on their 
shores that is not excelled many fold by the natural beauty of this 
scenery, which, since the Congo highlands were first fractured by 
volcanic caprice or by some wild earth-dance, has remained unknown, 
unhonored and unsung." 

From Stanley Pool to Mswata, a distance of 64 miles, the river 
has a width of 1500 yards, a depth sufficient to float the largest 
steamer, and heavily wooded banks. The people are of the Kiteke 
tribes and are broken into many bands, ruled by a high class of 
chieftains, who are not averse to the coming of the white man. 
The Congo receives an important tributary near Mswata, called the 
Kwa. This Stanley explored for 200 miles, past the Ploly Isle, or 
burial place of the Wabuma kings and queens, through populous 
and pleasantly situated villages and onward to a splendid expanse 
of water, which was named Lake Leopold II. 

It was during his exploration of the Kwa that Stanley fell sick; 
and on his return to Mswata, was compelled to return to Leopold- 
ville and so back to Manyanga, Yivi, and the various stations he 
had founded, to the coast, whemje he sailed for Loando, to take a 
steamer for Europe. The three-year service of his Zanzibaris was 
about to expire ; and when he met at Yivi, the German, Dr. Peschnel- 
Loeche, with a large force of men and a commission to take charge 
of the expedition, should anything happen to him (Stanley), he felt 
that it was in the nature of a reprieve. 

On August 17, 1882, he sailed from Loando for Lisbon. On his 
arrival in Europe, he laid before the International Association a full 
account of the condition of affairs on the Congo. He had founded 
five of the eight stations at first projected, had constructed many miles 
of wagon road, had left a steamer and sailing vessels on the Upper 
Congo, had opened the country to traffic up to the mouth of the 
Kwa, a distance of 400 miles from the coast, had found the natives 
amiable and wilhng to work and trade, and had secured treaties and 
concessions which guaranteed the permanency of the benefits sought 
to be obtained by the expedition and the founding of a great Free 
State. Yet with all this he declared that "the Con^o basin is not 
worth a two-shiUing piece in its present state, and that to reduce it 
to profitable order a railroad must be bdlt from the lower to the 



CONGO FREE STATE. 49 

upper river." Sucli road must be solely for tlie benefit of Central 
Africa and of such as desire to traffic in that region. He re2;arded 
the first phase of his mission as over — the opening of communication 
between the Atlantic and Upper Congo. The second phase he 
regarded as the obtaining of concessions from all the chiefs along 
the way, without which they would be in a position to force an 
abandonment of every commercial enterprise. » 

The International Association heard him patiently and offered to 
provide funds for his more extensive work, provided he would 
undertake it. He consented to do so and to push his work to 
Stanley Falls, if they would give him a reliable governor for the 
establishments on the Lower Congo. Such a man was promised; 
and after a six weeks' stay in Europe, he sailed again for Congo-land 
on November 23, 1882. 

He found his trading stations in confusion, and spent some time 
in restoring order, and re-victualling the empty store-houses. The 
temporary bridges on his hastily built roads had begun to weaken 
and one at the Mpalanga crossing gave way, compelling a tedious 
delay with the boats and wagons he was pushing on to the relief of 
Leopoldville. Here he found no progress had been made and that 
under shameful neglect everything was going to decay. Even 
reciprocity with the natives had been neglected, and garrison and 
tribes had agreed to let one another severely alone. To rectify all 
he found wrong required heroic exertion. He found one source of 
gratification in the fact that two English religious missions had been 
founded on the ground of the Association, one a Baptist, the other 
undenominational. Dr. Sims, head of the Baptists, was the first to 
navigate the waters of the Upper Congo, and occupy a station 
above Stanley Pool, but soon after the Livingstone, or undenomina- 
tional mission, established a station at the Equator. Both missions 
now have steamers at their disposal, and are engaged in peaceful 
rivalry for moral conquest in the Congo Basin. 

The relief of Leopoldville accomplished, Stanley started in his 
steam-launches, one of which was new (May 9, 1888), for the upper 
waters of the Congo, with eighty men. Passing his former station 
at Mswata, he sailed for Bolobo, passing through a country with few 
yillages and alive with lions, elephants, buffaloes and antelopes, 



CONGO FEEE STATE. 



51 



proof that the population is sparse at a distance from the river. 
Beyond the mouth of the Lawson, the Congo leaves behind its bold 
shores and assumes a broader width. It now becomes lacustrine 
and runs lazily through a bed carved out of virgin soil. This is the 
real heart of equatorial Africa, rich alluvium, capable of supporting 
a countless population and of emiching half a world. 




WEAVER-BIRDS NEST. 

The Bolobo country is densely populated, but flat and somewhat 
unhealthy. The villages arise in quick succession, and perhaps 
10,000 people live along the river front. They are peaceful, inchned 
to trade, but easily offended at any show of superiority on the part 
of white men, Ibaka is the leading chief. He it was who conducted 
negotiations for Gatula, who had murdered two white men, and who 
had been arraigned for his double crime before Stanley/ 



52 CONGO FKEE STATE. 

The latter insisted upon tlie payment of a heavy fine by the 
offending chief— or war. After long deliberation, the fine was paid, 
much to Stanley's rehef, for war would have defeated the whole 
object of his expedition. Ibaka's remark, when the affair was so 
happily ended, was: "Gatula has received such a fright and has 
lost so much money, that he will never be induced to murder a man 
again. No, indeed, he would rather lose ten of his women than go 
through this scene again." A Bolobo concession for the Association 
was readily obtained in a council of the chiefs. 

And this station at Bolobo was most important. The natives 
are energetic traders, and have agents at Stanley Pool and points 
further down the river, to whom they consign their ivory and cam- 
wood powder, very much as if they were Europeans or Americans. 
They even acquire and enjoy fortunes. One of them, Manguru, is a 
nabob after modern pattern, worth fully $20,000, and his canoes and 
slaves exploit every creek and affluent of the Congo, gathering up 
every species of merchandise available for the coast markets. 
Within two hours of Bolobo is the market place of the By-yanzi 
tribe. The town is called Mpumba. It is a live place on market 
days, and the fakirs vie with each other in the sale of dogs, croco- 
diles, hippopotamus meat, snails, fish and red- wood powder. 

Negotiations having been completed at Bolobo, and the station 
fully established, Stanley started with his flotilla. May 28th, on his 
way up the river. The natives whom he expected to confront were 
the Uyanzi and Ubangi. He was well provided with guides from 
Bolobo, among whom were two of Ibaka's slaves. The shores of 
the river were now densely wooded, and the river itself spread out 
to the enormous width of five miles, which space was divided into 
channels by islands, miles in length, and covered with rubber trees, 
tamarinds, boabab, bombax, redwood, palms and date palms, all of 
which were interwoven with profuse creepers, making an impene- 
trable mass of vegetation, royal to look upon, but suggestive of 
death to any one who dared to lift the verdant veil and look 
behind. 

Slowly the tiny steamers push against the strong currents and 
make their way through this luxuriant monotony, broken, to be 
§ure, every now and then, by the flit of a sun- bird, the chirp of ^ 



CONGO FBEE STATE. 53 

weaver, tlie swish of a bamboo reed, tlie graceful nodding of an 
overgrown papyrus, tbe scurrying of a flock of parrots, the yawn of 
a lazy hippopotamus, the plunge of a crocodile, the chatter of a dis- 
turbed monkey colony, the scream of the white- collared fish eagle, 
the darting of a king-fisher, the pecking of wag-tails, the starting of 
jays and flamingoes. Yet with all these appeals to eye and ear, 
there is the sepulchral gloom of impervious forest, the sad expanse 
of grossy plain, the spectral isles of the stream, the vast dome of 
tropical sky, and the sense of slowness of motion and cramped 
quarters, which combine to produce a melancholy almost appalling. 
It is by no means a Rhine journey, with gay steamers, flush with 
food and wine. The Congo is one-and-a-half times larger than the 
Mississippi, and with a width which is majestic in comparison with 
the "Father of Waters." It shows a dozen varieties of palm. Its 
herds of hippopotami, flocks of gleeful monkeys, troops of elephants 
standing sentry at forest entrances, bevies of buffaloes grazing on its 
grassy slopes, swarms of ibis, parrots and guinea-fowl fluttering 
everywhere — these create a life for the Congo, surpassing in variety 
that of the Mississippi, But the swift-moving, strong, sonorous 
steamer, and the bustling river town, are wanting. 

At last night comes, and the flotilla is twenty miles above Bolobo. 
Night does not mean the end of a day's work with the expedition, 
but rather the beginning of one, for it is the signal for all hands to 
put ashore with axes and saws to cut and carry a supply of wood 
for the morrow's steaming. A great light is lit upon the shore, and 
for hours the ringing of axes is heard, varied by the woodman's 
weird chant. The supply is borne back in bundles, the tired natives 
eat their cassava bread and boiled rice suppers, the whites partake 
of their roast goat's meat, beans, bananas, honey, milk and coffee, 
and then all is silence on the deep, dark river. The camp is 
. Ugende, still in the By-yanzi country. The natives are suspicious 
at first, but are appeased by the order that every member of the 
expedition shall make up his reedy couch in close proximity to the 
steamers. 

The next day's steaming is through numerous villages, banana 
groves, palm groups, and an agreeable alternation of bluff and vale. 
The Levy Hills approach the water in the airy red projections of 



54 CONGO FREE STATE. 

lyumbi. The natives gaze in awe upon tlie passing flotilla,: as 
mucli as to say, "What does it all mean?" "Has doom indeed 
dawned for us ? " Two hours above Ijumbi the steamers lose their 
way in the multitude of channels, and have to put back. On their 
return, twenty canoes are sighted in a creek. Information must be 
had, and the whale-boat is launched and ordered to visit the canoes. 
At sight of it, the occupants of the canoes flee. Chase is given, 
and five miles are passed before the whale-boat catches up. The 
occupants of the canoes are found to be women, who jump into the 
water and escape through the reeds to the shore. They prove dumb 
to all inquiries as to the river courses, and might as well have been 
spared their fright. 

On May 31st the journey was against a head wind, and so slow 
that two trading canoes, each propelled by twenty By-yanzi paddles, 
bound for Ubangi, kept pace with the steamers all day. Provisions 
were now running low. Since leaving Bolobo, the eighty natives 
and seven Europeans had consunled at the rate of 250 pounds of 
food daily. It was therefore time to prepare for barter with the 
settlement which came into view on June 1st, and which the guides 
called Lukolela. 

Lukolela is a succession of the. finest villages thus far seen on the 
Congo, They are composed of substantial huts, built on a bold 
shore, and amid a primeval forest, thinned of its trees to give build- 
ing spaces. The natives are still of the Wy-yanzi tribe, and whether 
friendly or not, could not be ascertained on first approach. Stanley 
took no chances with them, but steaming slowly past their five mile 
of villages, he ordered all the showy calicoes and trinkets to be dis- 
played, and placed his guides and interpreters in the bows of the 
boats to harangue the natives and proclaim his desire to trade in 
peace. Though the throng gradually increased on the shore and 
became more curious as each village was passed, it gave no response 
except that the country had been devastated by frightful disease 
and was in a state of starvation. Horrid indeed was the situation, 
if they spoke the truth ! But what of the fat, well-to-do looking 
people on the banks ? Ah ! there must be something wrong some- 
where ! The steamers passed above the villages and put up for the 
night. Soon the natives came trooping from the villages, bearing 




i I, ' ,"* ^ *TL "^ I c if *^* 




56 CONGO FREE STATS. 

loads of fowls, goats, plantains, bananas, cassava, sweet-potatoes, 
yams, eggs, and palm-oil, and all eager for a trade. Barter was 
brisk that night, and was resumed the next morning, when canoe 
after canoe appeared, loaded down witli rations. A supply of food 
for eight days was secured. They excused their falsehoods of the 
previous day to the fear they had of the steamers. On finding that 
they were not dangerous, their cowardice turned into admiration of 
a craft they had never seen before. 

The Congo now ran through banks 100 feet high and a mile and 
a half apart, clothed with magnificent timber. Between these the 
flotilla sailed on June 2d, being visited occasionally by native fisher- 
men with fish to sell. The camp this night was in a deserted spot, 
with nothing to cheer it except dense flocks of small birds, followed 
by straggling armies of larger ones resembling crows. On the eve- 
ning of June 3d the steamers reached a point a few miles below 
Ngombe. Here Stanley was surprised to hear his name called, in 
good English, by the occupants of two canoes, who had fish and 
crocodiles to sell. He encouraged the mongers by making a pur- 
chase, and on inquiry found that the natives here carry on quite a 
brisk trade in young crocodiles, which they rear for the markets. 
They procure the eggs, hatch them in the sand, and then secure the 
young ones in ponds, covered with nets, till they are old enough to 
market. 

Ngombe was now sighted, on a bank 40 feet above the river, amid 
a wealth of banana groves and other signs of abundance. Above 
and below Ngombe the river is from four to five miles mde, but 
here it narrows to two miles and flows with a swift current. The 
sail over the wide stretch above Ngombe was through the land of 
Nkuku, a trading people. At Butunu the steamers were welcomed 
with delight, and the shores echoed with shouts of "Malamu!" 
Good ! But it remained for the Usindi to greet the travelers with 
an applause which was ridiculously uproarious. Hundreds of canoes 
pushed into the stream, followed and surrounded the steamers, their 
occupants cheering as though they were frantic, and quite drowning 
every counter demonstration. At length a dozen of them sprang 
aboard one of the steamers, shook hands with all the crew, and 
gratified their curiosity by a close inspection of the machinery and 



58 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

equipments. Then they would have the steamers put back to theii 
landing at Usindi, where the welcome was continued more obstrep- 
erously than ever. The secret of it all was that these people were 
great river traders, and many of them had been to Leopoldville and 
Kintamo, 300 miles below, where they had seen houses, boats and 
wagons. They were a polished people, not given to show of their 
weapons for purposes of terrorizing their visitors, and kindly in the 
extreme. luka, their king, besought Stanley to make a station at 
Usindi and enter into permanent trade relations with his people. 

A very few miles above Usindi the flotilla entered a deep channel 
of the Congo, which seemed to pass between fruitful islands, whose 
shores were lined with people. They were ominously quiet till the 
steamers passed, when they gave pursuit in their canoes. The 
steamers stopped, and the pursuers made the announcement that 
they bore an invitation from King Mangombo, of Irebu, to visit 
him. Mention of the Irebu was enough to determine Stanley. They 
are the champion traders of the Upper Congo, and are equalled only 
by the powerful Ubanzi who live on the north side of that great 
flood. The Irebu have, time and again, borne down upon the 
Lukolela, Ngombe, Nkuku, Butunu and Usindi, and even the fierce 
Bengala, and taught them all how to traffic in peace and Avith 
credit. 

When the steamers came to anchor at Mano-ambo's villas-e. the 
aged king headed a procession of his people and welcomed Stanley 
by shaking his hand in civilized fashioii. There were cheers, to bo 
sure, but not the wild vociferations of those who looked upon his 
flotilla as something supernatural. There was none of that eager 
curiosity which characterizes the unsophisticated African, but a dig- 
nified bearing and frank speech. They had an air of knowledge and 
travel which showed that their intercourse with the trading world 
had not been in vain. They know the Congo by heart from Stanley 
Pool to Upoto, a distance of 600 miles ; are acquainted with the 
military strength and commercial genius of all the tribes, and can 
compute the value of cloth, metals, beads and trinkets, in ivory, live- 
stock and market produce, as quickly as the most skillful accountant. 
Blood brotherhood was made with Mangombo, valuable gifts were 
interchanged, and then the chief, in a long speech, asked Stanley 



CONGO FREE STATE. 69 

to intercede in liis belialf in a war lie was waging witli Magwala 
and Mpika, — wMcli he did in such a way as to bring about a 
truce. 

The large tributary, Lukanga, enters the Congo near Irebu, with 
its black waters and sluggish current. The flotilla left the mouth 
of the Lukanga on June 6th, and after a sail of 50 miles, came to 
Ikengo on June 8th. The route had been between many long 
islands, heavily wooded, while the shores bore an unbroken forest 
of teak, mahogany, gum, bombax and other valuable woods. At 
Ikengo the natives came dashing into the stream in myriad of canoes 
shouting their welcomes and praising the merits of their respective 
villages. Here it was, "Come to Ikengo!" There it was, "Come 
to Itumba!" Between it was, "Come to Inganda!" With all it 
was, "We have women, ivory, slaves, goats, sheep, pigs," etc. It 
was more like a fakir scene in Constantinople or Cairo than a pagan 
greeting in the heart of the wilderness. Perhaps both their 
familiarity and importunity was due in great part to the fact they 
remembered Stanley on his downward trip years before. 

Having, in 1877, been royally received at Inganda, Stanley landed 
there, and stopped temporarily among those healthy, bronze-colored 
denizens, with their fantastic caps of monkey, otter, leopard or goat 
skin, and their dresses of grassy fibre. From this point Stanley 
made a personal exploration to the large tributary of the Congo, 
called the Mohindu, which he had mapped on his trip down the 
Congo. Pie found what he had conceived to be an affluent of 1,000 
yards wide, to be one of only 600 yards wide, with low shores, run- 
ning into extensive timber swamps. He called it an African Styx. 
But further up it began to develop banks. Soon villages appeared, 
and by and by came people, armed, yellow-bodied, and dancing as 
if they meant to awe the occupants of the boat. But the boat did 
not stop till it arrived at a cheerful village, 80 miles up the river, 
where, on attempting to stop, it was warned off with the threat that 
a landing would be a sure signal for a fight. Not wishing to tempt 
them too far, the steamer put back, receiving as a farewell a volley 
of sticks and stones which fell far short of their object. 

On the return of the steamer to Inganda, preparation was made 
for the sail to the next station up the Congo, which being in the 



60 CONGO FREE STATE. 

latitude of only one minute nortli of tlie Equator, or, in other words, 
as nearly under it as was possible, was called Equator Station. 
This station was made a permanent one by the appointment of Lieut. 
Yangele as commander, with a garrison of 26 men. Lieut. Coquil- 
hat, with 20 men, was also left there, till reinforcements and supplies 
should come up from Leopold ville. After remaining here long 
enough to prepare a station site and appease the neighboring chiefs 
with gifts, the balance of the expedition returned down the river to 
Inganda, or rather to Irebu, for it had been determined that Inganda 
was too sickly a place for a station. Yet how were these hospitable 
people to be informed of the intended change of base without giving 
oft'ence? Stanley's guide kindly took the matter in hand, and his 
method would have done credit to a PhiladeljDhia lawyer. Eubbing 
his eyes with pepper till the tears streamed down his cheeks, and 
assuming a broken-hearted expression, he stepped ashore among the 
assembled natives, as the boat touched at Inganda, and took a posi- 
tion in their midst, utterly regardless of their shouts of welcome and 
their other evidences of hearty greeting. To all their anxious 
inquiries he responded nothing, being wholly engaged in his role of 
sorrow. At last, when their importunity could not be further 
resisted, he told them a pitiful story of hardship and death in an 
imaginary encounter up the river, and how Mangombo's boy, of 
Irebu, had fallen a victim, beseeching them to join in a war of 
redress, etc., etc. The acting of the native guide was complete, and 
all Inganda was so deceived by it and so bent on a war of revenge 
that it quite forgot to entertain any ill-feehng at the departure of the 
steamer and the abandonment of the station. So Stanley sailed 
down to Irebu, where he found his truce broken and Mangombo 
plunged again into fierce war with his neighbors — Mpika and 
Magwala. 

Once more Stanley interceded by calhng a council of the chiefs on 
both sides. After an impressive speech, in which he detailed the 
horrors of war and the folly of further slaughter over a question of a 
few slaves, he induced the hostile chiefs to shake hands and exchange 
pledges of peace. They ratified the terms by firing a salute over the 
grave of the war, and disbanded. Irebu is a large collection of vil- 
lages extending for fully five miles along the Congo and Lukan^a, 



52 CONGO FKEE STATE. 

and carrying a depth of two miles into the conntrv. These closely 
knitted villages contain a population of 15,000 people, with as many 
more in the immediate neighborhood. 

The Lukanga was now explored. Its sluggish, reed- obstructed 
mouth soon brought the exploring steamer into a splendid lake with 
village-hned shores. This was Lake Mantumba, 144 miles in cir- 
cumference. The inhabitants are experts in the manufacture of pot- 
tery and camwood powder and carry on a large ivory trade with the 
Watwa dwarfs. 

Stanley then returned to the Congo and continued his downward 
journey, rescuing in one place the occupants of a capsized canoe; at 
another giving aid to a struggling Catholic priest on his way to the 
mouth of the Kwa to establish a mission; trying an ineffectual shot 
at a hon crouching on the bank and gazing angrily at the flotilla, 
pursuing its fleeing form, only to stumble on the freshly-slain carcass 
of a buffalo Avhich the forest-king had stricken down while it was 
drinking, and at length arriving at Leopoldville, after an absence of 
57 days, to find there several new houses, erected by the command- 
ant, Lieut. Yalcke, who had also founded the new station of Kin- 
shassa. Where two months before all was wilderness, now fully 500 
banana-trees were flourishing, terms of peace had been kept with the 
whimsical JSTgalyema, and the store-rooms of the station were regular 
banks, that is, they were well stocked with brass rods, the circulating 
medium of the country. 

Stanley remained at Leopoldville for some time, rectifying mis- 
chiefs which had occurred at Yiyi and Manyanga, and dispatching 
men and supplies up to Bolobo. Here incidents crowded upon him. 
Having commissioned a young continental officer to establish a sta- 
tion on the opposite side of the river, the fellow no sooner arrived on 
the ground than he developed a homicidal mania and shot one of his 
own sergeants. He was brought back in a tattered and dazed con- 
dition and dismissed down the river. Word came of the destruction 
of a canoe by a gale near the mouth of the Kwa, and the drowning 
of Lieut. Jansen and twelve people, among whom was Abbe Guyot, 
the Catholic priest above mentioned. From Kimpoko station came 
word that a quarrel had broken out there with the natives, and that 
relief must be had, A visit showed the station to have been 



CONGO FREE STATE. 63 

deserted, and it was destroyed and abandoned. More and more 
awful grew the situation. A canoe courier brought the harrowing 
word that Bolobo had been burned, with all the freshly dispatched 
goods. 

This news spurred Stanley to a hasty start for the ill-fated station 
on August 22d. Arriving opposite Bolobo, Stanley's rear steamers 
were fired upon from an ambush on the shore, and forced to admin- 
ister a return fire. His steamers had never been fired upon before. 
He effected a landing at Bolobo, only to find a majority of the vil- 
lages hostile to him, and bent on keeping up a desultory fire from 
the bush. So, unloading one of the steamers, he sent it back to 
Leopoldville to bring up quickly a Krupp cannon and ammunition. 
Despite his endeavors to bring about a better feeling, Stanley's men 
were fired upon daily, and they returned it as best they could, occa- 
sionally killing a native, and doing damage to their banana trees, 
beer pots and chicken coups. At length the wounding of a chief 
brought about a parley and offers of peace tokens, but Stanley 
replied that since they seemed to be so fond of fighting, and were 
not doing him any particular harm, he proposed to keep it up from 
day to day till his monster gun arrived from Stanley Pool, when he 
would blow them all sky-high. This awful threat was too much 
for them. A nine days' palaver ensued, which resulted in their pay- 
ment of a fine and renewed peace. But when the great gun arrived, 
they saw, in the absence of trigger, stock and ramrod, so little like- 
ness to a gun, that they claimed Stanley had deceived them, and 
refused to be propitiated till he proved it to be what he had repre- 
sented. The Congo at Bolobo is 4,000 yards wide. Stanley ordered, 
the cannon to be fired at a range of 2,000 yards, and when they saw 
a column of water thrown up by the striking of the charge at that 
distance, and witnessed the recoil of the piece, they began to think 
it was indeed a terrible weapon. They were still further convinced 
of the truth of his representations by a second shot, which carried 
the charge to a distance of 3,000 yards. 

It was by such manoeuvres as these that Stanley established fresh 
relations with these Wy-yanzi tribes. They are naturally wild and 
turbulent. A dispute over a brass rod, or a quarrel over a pot of 
beer, is a signal for war. Superstition rules them, as few tribes are 



64 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

ruled. A bad dream by a cMef may lead to the suspicion that he is 
bewitched, and some poor victim is sure to suffer burning for 
witchcraft. Ibaka caused a young girl to be strangled because her 
lover had sickened and died. At an upper village forty-five people 
were slaughtered over the grave of their chief— a sort of propitiatory 
sacrifice. 

After all matters had been settled, Stanley read them a lecture on 
the folly of fighting friendly white men, who had never done them 
an injury, and did not intend to. To show his appreciation of the 
situation, he made them a present of cloth and brass rods, and offered 
to pay for a treat of beer. They went out and held a palaver, and 
then returned with a request that the gifts be duplicated. " Never ! " 
shouted Stanley. "Ibaka, this land is yours. Take it. I and my 
people depart from Bolobo forever!" 

To this all the chiefs remonstrated, saying they had no intention 
of driving him away, and explaining that their demand was only 
according to the custom of the Wy-yanzi to always ask for twice as 
much as was offered them. Despite this rather surprising com- 
mercial spirit, they are not a vindictive people — simply superstitious 
and quarrelsome. 

After these difficulties, Stanley resumed his up-river journey for 
Lukolela, passing on the way the mouths of the Minkene river, of 
the Likuba, and of the larger river Bunga, whose banks are thickly 
strewn with villages. Once at Lukolela, a station was formed by 
clearing away the tall forest trees. Though the forests were mag- 
nificent, and capable of furnishing timber for generations, the soil 
was hard, stony and forbidding, and Stanley despaired of ever get- 
ting a garden of sufficient dimensions and fertility to support a gar- 
rison. He, however, left a Mr. Glave, a young Englishman, in 
charge, who seemed to think he could force nature to promise sub- 
sistence and comfort. 

On September 22d Stanley started for Usindi, having on board 
Miyongo, of that place, and his shipwrecked crew. On their 
safe arrival, there was no show of gratitude for the favor done, but 
blood-brotherhood was made with Miyongo. This provoked the 
jealousy of the senior chief, luka, a dirty old fellow, of wicked 
mien, whose grievance seemed to be that Miyongo was too popular 



66 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

in the community. A short palaver reconciled him to the situation, 
and Stanley departed with the assurance that Usindi might be 
counted on as a safe stopping-place in the future. Miyongo favored 
him with a guide who was well acquainted with the upper waters 
of the Congo. 

Irebu was now passed, and then the mouth of the Bauil, whose 
people are a piratical crew, dreaded by all their neighbors. By 
September 29th the flotilla was at Equator Station again, after an 
absence of one hundred days. What a transformation ! The j angle 
and scrub had disappeared, and in their stead was a solid clayhouse, 
roomy, rain-proof and bullet-proof, well lighted and furnished. 
Around it were the neat clay huts of the colored carriers and sol- 
diers, each the centre of a garden where grevv^ corn, sugar-cane, sweet 
potatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, etc. Then there was a grand gar- 
den, full of onions, radishes, carrots, beans, peas, beets, lettuce, pota- 
toes and cabbages, and also a servants' hall, goat-houses, fowl-houses 
and all the et-ceteras of an African plantation. It was Stanley's 
ideal of a Congo station, and sight of it gave him greater heart for 
his enterprise than any thing he had yet seen. The native chief, 
Ikenge, was at first disposed to be troublesome, but was soon 
appeased. On October 11th Stanley congratulated himself that he 
had passed so much of the river limit, leaving peace behind him with 
all the nations, and stations abounding in means of support, if they 
exerted themselves in the right direction. 

Equator Station is 757 miles from the i^ tlantic Ocean and 412 
miles above Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool. Stanley's initial work 
was really done here, but in response to earnest wishes from Brus- 
sels, he continued it in the same spirit and for the same purpose for 
600 miles further, with a view of making a permanent station at 
Stanley Falls. With 68 colored men and 5 Europeans on board, and 
with his steamers well freighted with necessaries, he left Equator 
Station on October 16th. The first place of moment passed was at 
Uranga, near the confluence of the Lulunga with the Congo. The 
country around is flat, densely wooded, and the villages close 
together. The Uranga people were anxious for a landing and pala- 
ver, but the steamers pushed on to Bolombo, where a famine pre- 
vailed, and where the natives were peaceable and anxious to make 
blood- brotherhood. 



68 CONGO FREE STATE. 

Above Bolombo the steamers were met by a fleet of canoes, whose 
occupants bore the news that the Bengala were anxious for a stop 
and palaver. These were the terrible fighters who harrassed Stanley 
so sorely on his descent of the Congo in 1877. He had heard 
further down the river that they had threatened to dispute every 
inch of water with the white man if ever he came that way again. 
But he had also heard from Mangombo, of Irebu, that the lesson 
they had learned was so severe that all the white men would have 
to do would be to shake a stick at them. Still Stanley approached 
anxiously. The Bengala callages stretch for miles along the Congo. 
He did not stop his steamers, which were soon surrounded by hun- 
dreds of canoes, but kept slowly moving past the countless villages 
for fully five hours. The canoc-men seemed impelled wholly by 
curiosity, and no sign of hostility appeared. The guide held frequent 
talks with the natives, none of which evoked other than friendly 
replies. They are a tall, broad-shouldered, graceful people, shading 
off' from a dark bronze to a light complexion. The steamers came 
to a halt for the night at an island, two hours' sail from the upper 
end of the villages, and 500 yards from the shore, and thither the 
guide came in the evening with a young chief, Boleko, who invited 
a landing the next day. In the morning he came with an escort of 
canoes and took Stanley to his village, through the identical channel 
whence had issued the hostile canoes in 1877. Here trading was 
carried on briskly and satisfactorily, till a message came from old 
Mata Bwyki to the effect that he regarded it as an insult on the part 
of a boy like Boleko to be extending the tribal honors in that way. 
The only way out of this was for the steamers to drop back two 
miles and spend a day opposite the village of the old chief — Lord-of- 
many-guns. Old Mata was found to be a Herculean fellow, nearly 
eighty years old, and walking with a staff" that resembled a small 
mast; By his side appeared seven sons, all fine-looking fellows, but 
the gray shock of tif e old man towered above them all when he 
straightened himself up. Around them was a throng which num- 
bered thousands. The assembly place and place of welcome was 
laid with grass mats. Stanley and his men marched into it, ogled on 
every side, and not knowing whether the end would be peace or war. 
The guide presented them with a speech which described Stanley's 



- CONGO FREE STATE, 69 

work and objects — all he liad done below tliem on the river, the 
advantages it would be to treat and trade with him, winding up with 
an intimation that it might be dangerous, or at least useless, to prove 
unfriendly, for his steamers were loaded with guns and ammunition 
sufficient for the extermination of the entire people. The result 
was a treaty, sealed Avith blood-brotherhood, and a promise on the 
part of Stanley to return at no distant day and establish a permanent 
station among the Bengala. This village was Iboko. 

The Congo here is literally filled with islands which render a passage 
from one shore to the other almost impossible. These islands are 
all richly verdure-clad and present a scene of rare loveliness, draped 
in -a vegetable life that finds a parallel no where else in nature. It 
took the steamers thirteen hours to work their way across to tlie 
left, or Mutembo side. But Mutembo was deserted. The steamers 
made Mkatakura, through channels bordered with splendid copal 
forests, whose tops were covered with orchilla — fortunes for whole 
civilized nations, if possessed and utilized. Mkatakura was also 
deserted. Where were these people ? Their places had been popu- 
lous and hostile in 1877. Had they fallen a prey to stronger tribes? 
Alas ! such must have been their fate in a country where wars never 
end, and where provocations are the slightest. 

Many deserted settlements were now passed, when Mpa, ruled by 
lunga, was reached, 744 miles from Leopoldville. The people were 
peaceful and disposed to make all necessary concessions. The next 
day brought them to Nganza, ruled by old Eubanga, who had 
received Stanley with cordiality in 1877. The people were exceed- 
ingly anxious to trade, and offered their wares, especially their ivory, 
of which they had plenty, at ridiculously low figures. The people 
are known as the Langa-langa — the upper country — and they go 
almost entirely naked. Their bodies are cross-marked and tatooed. 
The country is regarded as a paradise for ivory traders, owing to the 
ignorance of the natives as to the real commercial value of the arti- 
cle. Here is the turning-point in African currency. The cloth and 
brass-rods of the Atlantic coast no longer hold good, but the Canton 
bead and the cowry of Ujiji are the measure of exchange. Langa- 
langa is therefore the commercial water-shed which divides the 
Atlantic and Pacific influence. 



70 CONGO FREE STATE. 

On November 4th Ikassa was passed, whose people fled on the 
approach of the steamers. It was the same at Yakongo. Then 
came a series of deserted villages. Presently appeared the newly- 
settled towns of Ndobo and Ibunda, with their wattled huts. Bumba 
came next, with whose chief, Myombi, l:^lood-brotherhood was made 
amid a throng of curious sight-seers. It was the fiftieth time Stan- 
lev's arm had been punctured for treaty purposes since he entered 
upon his journey. There was little opportunity for trading here 
owing to the curiosity of the people over the steamers. They could 
hardly be persuaded that the dreaded Ibanza — devil — did not Hve 
down in the boats. It must be he who required so much wood for 
food and gave such groans. If not, what was it that lived in that 
great iron drum and made those wheels spin round so rapidly? In 
this mood they forgot the art of exchange so natural with African 
natives. Their curiosity was such that the crowds about and upon 
the steamers became not only a drawback to exchange, but to work. 
At length one of the cabin-boys tried the effect of a practical joke. 
He opened the cabin door and pushed forward the form of a splendid 
Bengal tiger, as Ibanza, which was creating all the noise and trouble 
in the boat. The frightened natives shrieked and ran at glance of 
the terrible figure, and the river bank was cleared in a moment. 
Yells of laughter followed them from the boat's crew. Being assured 
by this that nothing harmful was intended, they began to cluster 
back, and really joined heartily in the merriment, as they saw that 
the source of their terror was only a tiger skin hurriedly stuffed for 
the purpose of giving them a scare. Trade was more active after 
that, and provisions were plenty. 

Above Bomba the steamers neared the equally populous town of 
Yambinga. The chief was Mukuga, who wore an antelope-skin cap 
adorned with cock's feathers, a broad shoulder-belt with leopard-skin 
attachment, and strings of tags, tassels and fetish mysteries. He was 
a timid chief, notwithstanding his gaudy apparel, and quite wiUing 
to make blood brotherhood. All of these later villages were plenti- 
fully supphed with war-canoes, the count being 556 at Lower and 
Upper Yambinga, and 400 at Buruba. 

Above Yambinga the flotilla got lost in an affluent of the Congo 
and had to put back to the main stream. The stream was supposed 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



71 



to be tlie Itimbiri. For manj days botli shores of the Congo had 
not appeared at once. But on the 12th both sides could be seen, 
and on the right was a wide plain once inhabited bj the Yalulima, 
a tribe of artisans skilled in the manufacture of iron, including 
swords, spears, bells and fetishes of various devices. On an island 
above dwelt the Yambungu, who were disposed to trade and who 
brought fine sweet-potatoes, fowls, eggs, and a species of sheep with 
broad, flat tails. 




AFRICAN" BLACKSMITHS. 

The districts were now very populous, and the affluents frequent 
and very complicated as to name and direction of flow. The Basaka, 
Bahamba and Baru villages were passed without a stop. At all of 
these there were canoe demonstrations, but whether for hostile purpose 
or not was not inquired after. The flotilla was now nearing the great 
Congo affluent, the Aruwimi, out of whose mouth issued the enor- 



72 CONGO FREE STATE. 

mous canoe-fleet wliicli so nearly annihilated Stanley in 1877. He 
gave orders to be on the alert, but to resort to hostilities only when 
all hope of self-preservation otherwise had failed. Scarcely had 
these orders passed when a stream of long, splendid-looking war- 
canoes, filled with armed men, dashed out from behind an island, and 
began to reconnoitre the steamers. They pushed over to the right 
bank, and kept an upward course, without show of resistance and at 
a safe distance. The steamers plunged ahead, and soon the mouth 
of the Aruwimi opened its spacious jaws to receive them. High on 
the bank appeared the town of Mokulu, whose Basoko inmates had 
fought the battle with Stanley years before. He knew their dispo- 
sition then, but what was it now? Was the meeting to be one of 
war or friendship? 

The Congo has a majestic flow where it receives its great tributary, 
the Aruwimi. Bounding a point, the steamers entered the affluent, 
to find the villagers- in force, dressed in war-paint, armed with spear 
and shield, beating their war-drums, and disporting themselves fan- 
tastically on the banks. The canoes of observation were speedily 
joined by others. The three steamers were put across to a clearing 
on the divide between the Cono-o and Aruwimi, and two of them 
brought to anchor. The Eu Avant was then steamed up the Aru- 
wimi past Mokulu. Then her head was turned down stream, and 
the gu.ide was stationed on the cabin to proclaim the words of peace 
and friendship as the steamer slowly returned. The drums on shore 
ceased to beat. The battle-horns were hushed. The leaping forms 
were still. The guide was eloquent in his speech and diamatic in 
his action. He had the ear of all Mokulu. At length a response 
came that if all the steamers anchored together, the Basoko would 
soon come as friends. The canoes hovered about, but could not be 
persuaded to come within 250 yards. Hours elapsed before they 
mustered up sufficient courage to approach the shore mthin haihng 
distance of the camps at the anchorage. Thither the guide and 
three companions went, and the ceremony of blood-brotherhood was 
performed. The town of Mokuln heard the shouts of satisfaction at 
this result, and a response came in the shape of drum-beats and horn- 
toots. Intercourse with the fierce Basoko was a possibility. 

These Basokos received Stanley's guide, Yumbila, first and loaded 




AFRICAN HEADDRESSES. (p. 73.) 



74 CONGO FREE STATE. 

him with presents. They then told him of Stanley's former approach 
and battle, also of a second visitation far worse than Stanley's, which 
must have been one by an Arab gang of slave-stealers, judging from 
its barbarity. They were averse to a journey up the the Aruwimi, 
though willing that the expedition should proceed up the Congo. 
It was impossible to get information from them respecting their river. 
They proved to be willing traders, and possessed products in abun- 
dance. Their spears, knives, paddles and shields showed remarka- 
ble workmanship, being delicately polished, and carved with like- 
nesses of lizards, crocodiles, canoes, fish and buffaloes. Their head- 
dresses were of fine palm materials, decorated, and a knit haversack 
formed a shoulder-piece for each man. Physically they are a splen- 
did people, industrious after their style, fond of fishing, and not given 
to that ignorant, childish curiosity so common among other tribes. 
They are adepts at canoe construction, and some of their vessels 
require a hundred stout warriors to propel them in a fight. 

Notwithstanding opposition, Stanley determined to explore the 
Aruwimi, which is 1,600 yards wide at its mouth, and narrows to 900 
yards above Mokula. He found in succession the Umaneh, the 
Basongo, the Isombo, all populous, timid, and friendly. After pass- 
ing Yambua and Irungu, he came to the quite populous metropolis 
of Yambumba, on a bluff 40 feet high, containing 8,000 people living 
in steeply conical huts, embowered by bombax, palms, banana-trees 
and fig-trees. The puffing of the steamers put the whole town to 
flight. Further on came the rapids of the river and the Yambuya 
people and town. These shrewd people declined to trade on the 
plea of poverty, and even refused to give the correct name of their 
village. Their appearance belied their assertions. Stanley found 
the rapids of the Aruwimi a bar to steam navigation. They are 96 
miles from the mouth of the river, which runs nearly westward thus 
far. It Avas this brief exploration of the river which determined him 
to use it as a route to Albert Nyanza on his search for Emin Pasha. 
Should it keep its course and continue its volume, it could not but 
find a source far to the east in the direction of the lake, and very 
near to its shores. As one of the fatalities which overhang explor- 
ers, Stanley mistook it for the Welle, described by Scheinfurth, just 
as Livingstone mistook the Lualaba for the Mle, 



CONGO FREE STATE. 75 

This "Welle, or Wellemakua, river about wliicli Stanley indulges 
in surmises, is tlie celebrated river brought into notice by Schwein- 
furth's discoveries, and over whicli a geograpliical controversy raged 
for seventeen years. The question was whether it was the Shari 
river, which emptied into Lake Tchad, or whether its mysterious 
outlet was further south. Stanley's last journey in search of Emin 
Pasha pretty definitely settled the controversy by ascertaining that 
the Welle is the upper course of the Mobangi, a tributary of the 
Congo. 

And while speaking of Schweinfurth, we must use him as author- 
ity to settle any misapprehension likely to arise respecting the 
nature of the dwarfs which Stanley encountered on the waters of the 
Upper Aruwimi. He calls them Monbuttus, thereby giving the 
impression that the tribe is one of dwarfs. It was Schweinfurth's 




ORNAMENTED SMOKING-PIPE. 

province to set at rest the long disputed question of the existence of 
a dwarf race in Central Africa. He proved, once for all, that Hero- 
dotus and Aristotle were not dealing ^vith fables when they wrote 
of the pygmies of Central Africa. One day he suddenly found him- 
self surrounded by what he conjectured was a crowd of impudent 
boys, who pointed their arrows at him, and whose manner betokened 
intentional disrespect. He soon learned that these hundreds of lit- 
tle fellows were veritable dwarfs, and were a part of the army of 
Munza, the great Monbutta king. These are the now famous Akka, 
who, so far as we know, are the smallest of human beings. It is 
these same Akka who, wandering in the forest a little south of 
Schweinfurth's route, picked off many a carrier in Stanley's late expe- 
dition, using arrows whose points were covered with a deadly poi' 
son, and refusing all overtures of friendship. 



7'6 CONGO FREE STATE. 

Schweinfurtli's description of tlie Niam-Niams (Great-Eaters) and 
of their southern neighbors, the Monbuttus, is the best that has yet 
appeared in print. He approached the country through the power- 
ful Dinka tribes on the north, whom he found rich in cattle, experts 
in iron- working and highly proficient in the art of pottery ornamenta- 
tion, especially as to their smoking-pipes. Competent authorities 
agree with his opinion that the ornamental designs upon their pot- 
teries and iron and copper wares, now exhibited in the Berlin 
Museum of Ethnology, would not discredit a European artist, and 
among these people, so far advanced in some respects, Schweinfurth 
discovered the first evidences of cannibalism which is said to pre- 
vail, on very doubtful authority, however, in a very large part of the 
Congo Basin. It is a noteworthy fact that, in all his travels, 
Livingstone never saw evidence of this revolting practice except 
on one or two occasions, and in all his voluminous writings he 
hardly refers to the topic. Dr. Junker, however, draws a distinc- 
tion between the Niam-Niam and Monbuttu cannibals which 
Schweinfurth in his briefer visit failed to observe. Junker says 
the Niam-Niam use human flesh as food only because they believe 
that in this way they acquire the bravery and other virtues with 
which their victims may have been endowed. The Monbuttu, on 
tlie other hand, make war upon their neighbors for no other pur- 
pose than to procure human flesh for food, because they delight in 
it as a part of their cuisine. With methodical care they dry the 
flesh they do not immediately use, and add it to their reserve sup- 
plies of food. 

Schweinfurth,s journey into Mam-Niam was through a prairie 
land covered with the tallest grasses he had yet seen in Africa. 
The people are given to cattle-raising and the chase. They are not 
of stalwart size, and their color is dark-brown rather than black. 
What they lack in stature they make up in athletic quahties. 
They took a keen interest in showing the traveler their sights, and 
in the evening regaled his camp w'th music, dispensed by a grotesque 
singer, who accompanied his attenuated voice with a local guitar of 
thin, jinghng sound. The drums and horns of the Niam-Mams are 
used only for war purposes. Everything testified to the fruitfulness 
of the soil. Sweet potatoes and yams were piled up in the farm- 



78 



CONGO FREE STATE. 




NIAM-NIAM MINSTRAL. 



steads, and circular 
receptacles of claj 
for the preservation 
of corn were erected 
tipon posts in the 
yards. The yards 
are surrounded by 
hedges of paradise 
figs ; back of these 
are the plantations 
of manioc and 
maize, and bej'ond 
their fields of eleu- 
sine. The women 
are modest and re- 
tiring in the pres- 
ence of white men, 
and their husbands 
hold them in high 
respect. The people 
are great believers 
in magic. The best 
shots, when they 
have killed an un- 
usual number of an- 
telopes or buffaloes, 
are credited with 
having charmed 
roots in their pos- 
session. TheNiam- 
Niam country is im- 
portant as being the 
water-shed between 
the Nile and ■ the 
rivers which run 
westward into the 
Congo, the Welle 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



79 



being the largest, which runs nearly parallel with the recently 
discovered Aruwimi. The Niam-JSTiam are great ivory traders 
and take copper, cloth, or trinkets at a cheap figure for this 
valuable ware. The southern and western part of their country 
becomes densely wooded and the trees are gigantic. Here the shape 
of the huts change, becoming loftier and neater, the yards having 




NIAM-NIAM WAPaUOKS. 

posts in them for displaying trophies of war and the chase. The char- 
acteristics of the Niam-Niam are pronounced and they can be identi- 
fied at once amidst the whole series of African races. 

Every Niam-ISTiam soldier carries a lance, trumbash, and dagger, 
made by their own smiths. Wooing is dependent on a payment 
exacted from the suitor by the father of the intended bride. When 



80 CONGO FREE STATE. 

a man resolves on matrimon}^, lie applies to the sub-cliieftain wLo 
helps him to secure his wife. In spite of the practice of polygamy, 
the marriage bund is sacred, and unfaithfulness is generally pmiished 
with, death. The trait is paramount for this people to shoAV consis- 
ent affection for their wives. Schweinfurtli doubts the charge of 
cannibalism brought against this people, and thinks their name 
"Great Eaters " might have given rise to the impression that they 
were \ man-eaters." 

The festivities that occur in case of marriage ar^ a bridal proces- 
sion,'' at the head of which the chieftain leads the bride to the home 
of her future husband, accompanied by musicians, minstrels and 
jesters. A feast is given, of which all partake in common, though 
in general the women are accustomed to eat alone in their huts. 
This marriage celebration, with slight variations, is usual with the 
tribes of Central Africa. Livingstone describes one among the 
Hamees of the Lualaba river, in which the bride is borne to the 
home of her husband on the shoulders of her lover or chieftain. 
The domestic duties of a ISTiam Mam wife consist mainly in culti- 
vating the homestead, preparing the daily meals, painting her hus- 
band's body and dressing his hair. Children require very little 
care in this genial climate, being carried about in a band or scarf 
till old enough to walk, and then left to run about with very little 
clothing on. 

They are lovers of music, as are their neighbors, especially the 
Bongo people, who possess a variety of quaint instruments capable 
of producing fairly tuneful concerts. Their language is an up-shoot 
of the great root which is the the original of every native tongue in 
Africa north of the Equator. They always consult augeries before 
going to war. In grief for the dead they shave their heads. A corpse 
is adorned for burial in dyed skins and feathers. They bury the dead 
with scrupulous regard to the points of the compass, the men facing 
the east and the women the west. 

Stanley now steamed back to the Congo, and once more breasted 
its yellow flood. He was now in the true heart of Africa, 1,266 
miles from the sea and 921 from Leopoldville, and upon a majestic 
flood capable of carrying a dozen rivers like the Aruwimi. It was 
a region of deep, impenetrable forests, fertile soil, and few villages, 



3X ,v: - ' '■ 






^' 







- 1? 






82 



CONGO FEEE STATE. 



for the fierce Bahunga seemed to have terrorized and devastated all 
the shores. The river abounds in large, fertile islands, the homes 
of fishermen and stalwart canoemen, who carry their products to 
clearings on the shores, and there exchange them for the inland 
products. This makes the shore clearings kind of market-places — 
sometimes peopled and sometimes deserted. 

In the distance a fleet of canoes is sighted, bearing down on the 
steamers. Are the 7 the hostile Bahunga ? The En Avant is sent 
forward on a reconnoissauce, and soon makes out the fleet to consist 




A BONGO CONCERT. 



of a thousand canoes, extending: a mile and a half in leneth. Five 
men to a canoe gave a force of 5,000 men, an army of sufficient size 
to overwhelm a hundred such tiny steamers as composed the Stanley 
flotilla. A storm arose, accompanied by vivid lightning and heavy 
thunder shocks. Tlie elements cleared the river of all fragile barks 
and left the steamers to their course. 

The old town of Mawembe came into view. It was not such as 
Stanley had mapped it, but a burned and nearly deserted spot. The 



CONGO FEEE STATE, 83 

Arab slave mercliant liad evidently penetrated tlius far, and these 
ashes were the marks of his cruelty. Another town, higher up, and 
entirely in ashes, proved the sad conjecture to be true, for before it 
sat at least 200 woe-begone natives, too abject in their desolation to 
even affect curiosity at the approaching steamers. On being hailed, 
the}^ told the pitiful tale of how a strange people, like those in the 
steamers, and wearing white clothes, had come upon them in the 
night, slaughtered their people, and carried off their women and 
children. The fleet of canoes, seen among the islands below, con- 
tained their own people, gathered for protection, forced to live on the 
islands in the day time and to go ashore at night for food. All this 
had happened but eight days before, and the maurauders had retreated 
up the river in the direction of Stanley Falls. 

A few miles above, the charred stakes, upright canoes, poles of 
huts, scorched banana groves and prostrate palms indicated the ruins 
of the site of Yavunga, the twelfth devastated town and eighth com- 
munity passed since leaving the mouth of the Aruwimi. Opposite 
Yavunga were the Yaporo, a populous tribe, but now stricken by 
fire, sword and famine as were their brothers. These had charged 
on Stanley six years before, but they were now in no mood to dispute 
his way. 

Floating by is an object which attracts attention. A boat-hook 
is thrown over, and to it clings the forms of two women bound 
together by a cord. The ghastly objects are raised, and a brief 
inspection shows that they could not have been drowned more than 
twelve hours before. The steamers push on, round a point, and in 
the distance appear white objects. A glass is brought to bear, and 
they jDrove to be the tents of the Arab thieves. They are from 
Nyangwe, above the Falls, the capital of Tippoo Tib's empire, unholy 
conquest from the Manyuema people, founded in flame, murder and 
kidnapping. The camp was palisaded and "the banks were lined with 
canoes, evidence that the maurauders had managed somehow to pass 
the Falls in force. The first impulse of Stanley was to attempt a 
rescue and wreak a deserved vengeance on these miscreants. But o.i 
second thought, his was a mission of peace, and he was without 
authority to administer justice. He represented no constituted gov- 
ernment, but was on a mission to found a government. To play the 



84 CONGO FREE STATE. 

role of judge or executioner in sucli an emergency might be to defeat 
all his plans and forever leave these wretches without a strong arm 
to cling to in time of future need. Had he come upon an actual 
scene of strife and burning, it would have been his to aid the weaker 
party, but now the law of might must have its way, till a sturdier 
justice than was at his disposal could come to tread in majesty along 
those dark forest aisles. 

And now what a meeting and greeting there was ! The steamers 
signalled the arrival of strangers. A canoe put out from the shore 
and hailed in the language of the Eastern coast. Both sides under- 
stood that the meeting was one of peace. The steamers made for 
shore below the tents, and a night encampment was formed. Soon 
Stanley's Zanzibaris were shaking hands with the Manyuema slaves 
of Abed bin Salim, who constituted the band that had been ravaging 
the country to obtain slaves and ivory. They had been out for six- 
teen months, and for eleven months had been raiding the Congo. 
The extent of country they had plundered was larger than Ireland, 
and contained a population of 1,000,000 souls. They numbered 300 
men, armed with shot-guns and rifles, and their retinue of domestic 
slaves and women doubled their force. Their camp, even then, was 
on the ruins of the to\\ai of Yangambi, which had fallen before their 
torches, and many of whose people were prisoners on the spot where 
they were born. 

Stanley took a view of the stockade in which they had confined 
their human booty. This is the horrible story as he writes it : 

"The first general impressions are that the camp is much too 
densely peopled for comfort. There are rows upon rows of dark 
nakedness, relieved here and there by the white dresses of the cap- 
tors. There are lines or groups of naked forms upright, standing or 
moving about listlessly ; naked bodies are stretched under the sheds 
in all positions ; naked legs innumerable are seen in the perspective 
of prostrate sleepers ; there are countless naked children, many were 
infants, forms of boyhood and girlhood, and occasionally a drove of 
absolutely naked old women, bending under a basket of fuel, or 
cassava tubers, or bananas, who are driven through the moving 
groups by two or three musketeers. In paying more attention to 
details, I observe that mostly all are fettered ; youths with iron 



CONGO FREE STATE. 85 

rings around tlaeir necks, tlirougli which, a chain like one of our 
boat-anchor chains is rove, securing the captives by twenties. The 
children over ten are secured by three copper rings, each ringed leg 
brought together by the central ring, which accounts for the apparent 
listlessness of movement I observed on first coming in presence of the 
curious scene. The mothers are secured by shorter chains, around 
whom their respective progeny of infants are grouped, hiding the 
cruel iron links that fall in loops or festoons over mamma's breasts 
There is not one adult man-captive amongst them. 

"Besides the shaded ground strewn over so thickly by the pros- 
trate and upright bodies of captives, the relics of the many raids lie 
scattered or heaped up in profusion everywhere, and there is scarcely 
a square foot of ground not littered with something, such as drums 
spears, swords, assegais, arrows, bows, knives, iron ware of native 
make of every pattern, paddles innumerable, scoops and balers, 
wooden troughs, ivory horns, whistles, buffalo and antelope horns, 
ivory pestles, wooden idols, beads of wood, berries, scraps of fetish- 
ism, sorcerers' wardrobes, gourds of all sizes, nets, from the lengthy 
seine to the small hand-net; baskets, hampers, shields as large as 
doors i(of wood or of plaited rattan), crockery, large pots to hold 
eight gallons, down to the child's basin ; wooden mugs, basins, and 
mallets ; grass cloth in shreds, tatters and pieces ; broken canoes, 
and others half- excavated ; native adzes, hatchets, hammers, iron 
rods, etc., etc. All these littering the ground, or in stacks and 
heaps, with piles of banana and cassava peelings, flour of cassava, 
and sliced tubers drying, make up a number of untidy pictures and 
details, through all of which, however, prominently gleam the eyes 
of the captives in a state of utter and supreme wretchedness. 

"Little perhaps as my face betrayed my feelings, other pictures 
would crowd upon the imagination ; and after realizing the extent 
and depth of the misery presented to me, I walked about as in a 
kind of dream, wherein I saw through the darkness of the night the 
stealthy forms of the murderers creeping towards the doomed town, 
its inmates all asleep, and no sounds issuing from the gloom but the 
drowsy hum of chirping cicadas or distant frogs — when suddenly 
flash the light of brandished torches ; the sleeping town is involved 
in flames, while volleys of musketry lay low the frightened and 



86 CONGO FREE STATE. 

astonislied people, sending many tlirougli a short minute of agony 
to that soundless sleep from which there will be no waking. I 
wished to be alone somewhere where I could reflect upon the doom 
which has overtaken Bandu, Yomburri, Yangambi, Yaporo, Yakusu, 
Ukanga, Yakonda, Ituka, Yaryembi, Yaruche, populous Isangi, and 
probably thirty scores of other villages and towns. 

"The slave-traders admit they have only 2,300 captives in this 
fold, yet they have raided through the length and breadth of a 
country larger than Ireland, bearing fire and spreading carnage with 
lead and iron. Both banks of the river show that 118 villages and 
43 districts have been devastated, out of which is only educed this 
scant profit of 2,300 females and children, and about 2,000 tusks of 
ivory ! The spears, swords, bows, and the quivers of arrows show 
that many adults have fallen. Given that these 118 villages were 
peopled only by 1,000 each, we have only a profit of two per cent.; 
and by the time all these captives have been subjected to the acci- 
dents of the river voyage to Kirundu and ISTyangwe, of camp-life 
and its harsh miseries, to the havoc of small-pox and the pests which 
miseries breed, there will only remain a scant one per cent, upon the 
bloody venture. 

"They tell me, however, that the convoys already arrived at 
Nyangwe with slaves captured in the interior have been as great as 
their present band. Five expeditions have come and gone with 
their booty of ivory and slaves, and these five expeditions have now 
completely weeded the large territory described above. If each 
expedition has been as successful as this, the slave-traders have been 
enabled to "'send 5,000 women and children safe to Nyangwe, 
Kirundu and Yibondo, above the Stanley Falls. Thus 5,000 out of 
an assumed million will be at the rate of a half per cent., or five slaves 
out of 1,000 people. 

"This is poor profit out of such large waste of life, for originally 
we assume the slaves to have mustered about 10,000 in number^ 
To obtain the 2,300 slaves out of the 118 villages they must have 
shot a round number of 2,500 people, while 1,300 more died by the. 
wayside, through scant provisions and the intensity of their hopeless 
wretchedness. How many are wounded and die in the forest, or 
droop to death through an overwhelming sense of their calamities, . 



CONGO FREE STATE. 87 

we clo not know ; but if the above figures are trustworthy, then the 
outcome from tlie territory with its milUon of souls is 5,000 slaves 
obtained at the cruel expense of 33,000 lives ! And such slaves ! 
They are females, or, young children who cannot run away, or who 
with youthful indifLerence, will soon forget the terrors of their capture ! 
Yet each of the very smallest infants has cost the life of a father and 
perhaps his three stout brothers and three grown-up daughters. An 
entire family of six souls would have been done to death to obtain 
that small, feeble, useless child ! 

"These are my thoughts as I look upon the horrible scene. 
Every second during which I regard them the clink of fetters and 
chains strikes upon my ears. My eyes catch sight of that continual 
lifting of the hand to ease the neck in the collar, or as it displays a 
n:anacle exposed through a muscle being irritated by its weight or 
want of fitness. My nerves are offended with the rancid effluvium 
of the unwashed herds within this human kennel. The smell of 
other abominations annoys me in that vitiated atmosphere. For 
how could poor people, bound and riveted together by twenties, do 
otherwise than wallow in filth ? Only the old women are taken out 
to forage. They dig out the cassava tuber, and search for t-ie ban- 
ana, while the guard, with musket ready, keenly watches for the 
coming of the vengeful native. JSTot much food can be procured in 
this manner, and what is obtained is flung down in a heap before 
each gang, to at once cause an unseemly scramble. Many of these 
poor things have been already months fettered in this manner, and 
their bones stand out in bold relief in the attenuated skin, which 
hangs down in thin wrinkles and puckers. And yet who can with- 
stand the feeling of pity so powerfully pleaded for by those large eyes 
and sunken cheeks? 

" What was the cause of all this vast sacrifice of human life — of 
all this unspeakable misery ? Nothing but the indulgence of an old 
Arab's ' wolfish, bloody, starved and ravenous instincts.' He wished 
to obtain slaves to barter away to other Arabs, and having weapons 
■ — guns and gunpowder — enough, he placed them in the hands of 
three hundred slaves, and despatched them to commit murder whole- 
sale, just as an English nobleman would put guns in the hands of his 
guests and permit them to slaughter the game upon his estate. If 



00 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

"we calculate three quarts of blood to each person who fell during 
the campaign of murder, ^Ye find that this one Arab caused to be shed 
2,850 gallons of human blood, sufficient to fill a tank measurement 
of 460 cubic feet, quite large enough to have drowned him and all 
his kin!" 

Nj^angwe, above mentioned, is an important market-town on the 
Congo, some distance abo^'e Stanley Falls, and the capital of the 
undefined possessions of which Tippoo Tib holds swaj. Living- 
stone says he has seen fully 3,000 people at the Nyanwe market of a 
clear day, anxious to dispose of their fish, fruits, vegetables and 
fowls. Many of them had walked twenty-five miles, bearing their 
baskets, heavily laden Avith produce, and some had come even 
further in canoes. On one occasion a riot broke out, instigated 
either by jealousy among the surrounding tribes or by the Arab 
slave-dealers for the purpose of rnaking captures. Three burly fel- 
lows began to fire their guns into the throng of women, who hastily 
abandoned their wares and dashed for the canoes. The panic was so 
great that the canoes could not be manned and pushed into the river. 
The frantic women, fired into continually from the rear, leaped and 
scrambled over the boats and jumped wildly into the river, preferr- 
ing the chances of a Ions; s^vim to an island rather than inevitable 
destruction on the shore. Many of the wounded wretches threw up 
their hands in despair ere they reached mid-stream, and sank to rise 
no more. Rescuing canoes put out into the water, and many were 
thus saved ; but one j)oor woman refused to be rescued, sajdng she 
would take her chances of life in the water rather than return to be 
sold as a slave. The Arabs estimate the slaughter that day at -iOO 
souls. 

Stanley now fully understood the meaning of all he had heard 
below of the terrible ^dsitations of these banditti — of the merciless 
character of the Bahunga, which name they had misunderstood, and 
of the desire of the dwellers on the lower waters that he should 
ascend the Congo, thereby hoping that all the whites would destroy 
one another in tlie clash, which seemed inevitable. After an exchange 
of gifts ^vith. these cut-throats and the loan of an interpreter to speak 
with the people at the Falls, the steamers departed from a scene 
whicb nature had made beautiful, but which, the hand of man had 



90 CONGO FREE STATE. 

stained witli crime and blood. The Congo liere lias bluffy, pictu- 
resque shores on the one side, and on the other lowlands adapted for 
sugar-cane, cotton, rice and maize. 

Some critics of Stanley have expressed wonder at his failure to 
assert his usual heroism when made to witness these Arab barbari- 
ties while ascending the Congo. They think he should have 
attacked and driven off these thieves and murderers, no matter what 
the result might have been to himself and his enterprise. The 
same, or a similar class of critics, think that when he was making 
his last journey up the Congo and the Arummi in search of Emin 
Pasha, he showed entirely too much consideration for the Arab 
marauders, and especially for that cunning and depraved official, 
Tippoo Tib, whom he recognized as governor at Nyangwe. 

Despite what are regarded by some impulsive people as the higher 
claims of humanitarianism, we are perfectly willing to trust to Mr, 
Stanlej^'s sense of right as modified by the exigencies of a situation 
about which no one else can know as much as himself. That situa- 
tion was altogether new and peculiar on both his ascents of the Congo 
in behalf of the Congo Free State, and in search of Emin Pasha. In 
the first instance he bore a commission from a higher power, the 
International Commission, whose agent he was. He had instructions 
to do certain things and to leave others undone. To provoke hos- 
tilities with those he met, to quarrel and fight, except in self- 
preservation, were not only things foreign to his mission, as being 
sure to defeat it, but were expressly forbidden to him. Conquest 
was no part of the new policy of the Congo Free State, but its foun- 
dation was peace and free concession by all the tribes within its 
boundaries. Time will vindicate his leniency in the midst of such 
scenes as he was forced to witness at the mouth of the Aruwimi and 
on the Congo above, during his first ascent of the river. 

And the same will prove true of his second ascent. To be sure, 
he was on a different mission and had greater freedom of action, but 
he knew well, from former experience, the character of the peoples 
upon the two great rivers near their jurisdiction. And if any events 
ever proved the wisdom of the steps which a man took, those surely 
did Avhich clustered about and composed the eventful, if melancholy, 
history of Stanley's "Rear Guard" on the Aruwimi. Several cor- 



CONGO FREE STATE. 91 

respondents, some of whom accompanied Stanley on liis two up-river 
journeys, and others wlio have been over the ground, have written 
fully of the Aruwimi situation, and their views are valuable, though 
space forbids more than a condensation of them here. 

A fatal river, say they all, was the Aruwimi for Stanley. It was 
so in 1877. 1883 served to recall regretful memories of his canoe 
descent, and introduced him to sadder scenes than he had ever occa- 
sioned or witnessed. The details of the deserted and blackened 
camp of his "Eear Guard" on the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition 
will prove to be more tragic than any which went before. It was 
close to the confluence of the Aruwimi with the Congo, as narrated 
elsewhere in this volume, that Stanly was compelled, in 1877, to 
storm a native village ; and, as we have just seen, when he passed 
the spot again in 1883, what wonder that the dusky warriors 
reassembled to receive him! Round the bend "where the great 
affluent gaped into view," the river was thronged with war-canoes, 
and on the banks stood the villages of Basongo and Mokulu, where 
Stanley's ancient foes resided. In fantastic array appeared long lines 
of fully armed warriors — a land force supporting the fighting men 
afloat; How, aided by a picturesque and showy interpreter, with a 
voice as powerful as his eloquence, Stanley, on this latter occasion, 
appeased, their warlike ardor and. made them friends, has just been 
told in these pages. 

The reader will understand, however, from the number of the 
force against him and the ferocious character of the tribes, why 
Stanley was so careful when forming his latest camp on the Aru- 
wimi, to have it well stockaded and efficiently sentinelled. The 
local natives had not only the incentive of their previous defeat by 
Stanley to keep their hostility alive, but they had had meanwhile 
some bitter experiences of the Arab raider. They are splendid races 
of men, the tribes of the Mokulu and the Basoko, picturesque in 
their yellow war-paint, their barbaric shields and decorative head- 
dresses. They are skilled workmen. Their paddles are beautifully 
carved, their spears and knives artistic and of dexterous shapeliness. 
They have also broadswords, and in a general way their weapons are 
of wonderful temper and sharpness. Now and then the Arab raid- 
ers find their, work of massacre and plunder a hot business among 



92 CONGO FKEE STATE. 

sucli natives as tliese ; but tlie advantage of the rifle is, of course, 
tremendous, and can only have one result. The Arabs do not, how- 
ever, always have it entirely their own way. They leave both dead 
and wounded sometimes in the hands of the enemy, who frequently 
condemn both to the pot, and make merry, no doubt, over their 
grilled remains. 

Among the many hardships of the Aruwimi camp, established by 
Stanley for his "Eear Guard," on his latest upward trip, and left 
under Major Barttelot, was the uncontrollable character of the Man- 
yema carriers and escort. These people have for many years been 
the slave-hunting allies of the Arabs- — their jackals, their cheetahs; 
and the Stanley camp had actually to be spectators of the attack and 
raiding of a native village, opposite their own quarters, on the other 
side of the river. It was towards night when the onslaught began. 
The sudden sound of the warlike drums of the surprised natives came 
booming across the water, followed by the fierce rattle of the Arab 
musketry. Dark figures and light were soon mixed together in the 
fray. The natives fought bravely — but they fell rapidly before the 
rifle. Pelted with the deadly hail of shot, they were soon vanquished. 
Then from hut to hut the flames of ruin began to spread, and in the 
lurid light women and children were marched forth to the slave- 
hunter's stockade — some to be ransomed next day by the remain- 
der of the ivory the natives had successfully hidden ; others proba- 
bly to be passed on from hand to hand until they eventually reached 
a slave-dealing market. And all this the officers and comrades of 
Mr. Stanley had the humiliation to witness without daring to inter- 
fere — ^not from any fear of losing their lives in the defence of the 
weaker — a death which has been courted by thousands of brave 
men on land and sea — but for reasons of policy. They were not 
there to protect the natives of the Aruwimi from Arab raiders, but 
to follow Mr. Stanley with the stores necessary for the success of his 
expedition. Nor is it likely that the force under Major Barttelot 
would have obeyed him if he had desired to intervene. Mr. Stanley 
himself more than once in his African experience has had to shut 
his eyes to Arab aggression and cruelty, although his influence with 
Tippoo Tib has no doubt paved the way for the realization of his 
humane ambition in the matter of slavery. From their stockade 



CONGO FREE STATE. 93 

and on board their launch at Yambuya, Barttelot and his comrades 
could see the woefully unequal warfare on the raided village, and there 
is no need of the assurance that their hearts beat high with indigna- 
tion and a desire to take a hand in it. Moreover, these lawless bru- 
talities practiced upon the natives made the difficulties of the camp 
all the greater, not only affecting the dangers of the advance, but 
increasing the perils of the way to the Falls, as was experienced by 
"Ward on his travels to and fro — his "aimless journeys" Mr. Stanley 
has called them, but undertaken nevertheless by order of Ward's 
superior officer. Major Barttelot. 

Whether or not the Arabs of the camp or the Manyuemas had a 
share in the tragedy on the other side of the river is a question per- 
haps of no serious moment ; but confessions were made to Ward 
which rather tend to show that the Arabs, while waiting for the 
expected advance, fulfilled other engagements on the river. "I went 
to Sehm's camp to-day," writes Mr. Ward in one of his private let- 
ters, "and they told me that two more of their men (Arabs) had 
been caught and eaten by the natives whose village they had raided 
and burnt some weeks ago." The same correspondent again writes: 
" This morning some of the raiders came down from up-river with 
news of the defeat of ten of their number, cut to pieces by the 
natives, who sought refuge in their canoes above the rapids." Selim 
and his men started off in pursuit, and returned at night lamenting- 
that they had killed only two of the natives. On the next day he 
told Ward that where his men had fallen he found their fingers tied 
in strings to the scrub of the river-bank, and some cooking-pots 
containing portions of their bones. What a weary time it was wait- 
ing, and with only this kind of incident to ruffle the monotony of it — • 
waiting for the jDromised carriers that did not come — waiting for 
news of Stanley that only came in suggestions of disaster ! It is 
hardly a matter of surprise that the camp began to fear the worst. 
Their own experiences of the broken word of Tippoo Tib and the 
utter unreliability and ferocity of a portion of their force might well 
give a pessimistic tone to their contemplation of the a'w^ul possibili- 
ties of Stanley's march. Every omen of the Aruwimi was unfavor- 
able to success ; and they must have been terribly impressed by such 
a scene as that which cast its murderous light upon the river not 



94 CONGO FREE STATE. 

long previously to the forward marcli, with the assassination of the 
commander and the eventual dispersion of the rear-guard. 

The above refers to Stanley's Emin Pasha expedition, details of 
which are given further on. But it is introduced here as showing 
what he had to contend wdth every time he struck the confluence of 
the two great rivers, and how dif&cult it was for him to pursue 
any other policy than he did, as it is a bewildering spot in nature, 
and in its human forces, so it is in its diplomancy. 

One of the writers above mentioned goes on to discuss the ques- 
tion of cannibalism whose existence on the Upper Congo, and in 
other parts of Africa, has been asserted by correspondents. He says 
his own description of these practices on the Aruwimi and the 
Congo are in no way connected with the reports which are criticised 
in Mr. Stanley's letter from Msalala, on Lake Yictoria, in August 
1889. Mr. Ward in none of his letters has ever mentioned or sug- 
gested that the Manyuemas were cannibals, or in any way justified 
the extraordinary statement of the Rev. William Brooke in the Times 
to the effect that it was common in the Manyuema camp to see 
"human hands and feet sticking out of cooking-pots." This is 
evidently a canard. Perhaps it would be well for Mr. Brooke to 
give his authorities, since Mr. Stanley asks who they are that have 
seen these extraordinary sights. The Mayuemas are a fierce race ; 
but, personally, Mr. Stanley has found them loyal and true to his 
service, and they are not cannibals, so far as I can learn. The 
instances of cannibalism mentioned in letters from the Aruwimi 
camp refer to the natives of the district outside the camp, and against 
whom the camp was fortified. But if Mr. Brooke has been misled, 
so also has Mr. Stanley in regard to the report he seems to have 
found in his bundles of newspaper cuttings to the effect that an 
execution of a woman was delayed by Jameson or Barttelot in order 
that a photographer might make ready his apparatus for taking a 
negative of the incident. This gruesom anecdote does not belong to 
Africa at all; it comes from a different part of the world altogether; 
was discussed in Parliament as an allegation made against an English 
Consul ; and turned out to be either untrue or a gross exaggeration. 
When Mr. Stanley has learnt all that was said and conjectured about 
his doings in the long intervals of the silence and mystery that 



CONGO FREE STATE. 95 

enshrouded him he will find less and less material for serious criti- 
cism in the other packets of press extracts he may yet have to unfold: 
but he need hardly be told that those who knew him and those who 
have trusted him would not, whatever happened, be led into think- 
ing for a moment that he would break his promise or neglect his duty. 

Stanley's upward bound steamers now pass several devastated dis- 
tricts which in 1877 were peopled by ferocious beings ready with 
their canoes to sweep down upon his descending flotilla. At length 
the island tribe of the Wenya is reached. These are expert fisher- 
men, and had been left unharmed by the i^rabs, — and for policy 
sake too, since their acquaintance with Stanley Falls had been 
turned to practical account. Their knowledge of the intricate chan- 
nels had enabled them to pilot the Arab canoes down over the 
obstructions and return them in the same way, the owners making the 
portage afoot. 

Here the steamers were at the foot of Stanley Falls. These Falls 
consist of seven distinct cataracts extending over a distance of fifty- 
six miles. The lower or seventh cataract is simply a rough inter- 
ruption to navigation for a distance of two miles. Above this is a 
navigable stretch of twenty-six miles, when the sixth cataract is 
reached. This, on the left side, is an impassable fall, but on the 
right is a succession of rapids. From the sixth to the fifth cataract 
is a twenty-two mile stretch of navigable water. The fifth, fourth, 
third, second and first cataracts come in quick succession, and within 
a space of nine miles. They appear to be impassable, but the fact 
that the natives manage to pass the Arab canoes up and down them 
proves that there are channels which are open to light craft when 
dexterously handled. 

The width of the Congo at the seventh cataract is 1330 yards, 
divided into several broken channels by islands and rocks. The 
inhabitants of the islands above and below are skillful fishermen 
belonging to two or three different tribes. They obstruct even the 
swiftest channels with poles from which are appended nets for catch- 
ing fish and these are visited daily in their canoes, over waters of 
dashing swiftness and ever threatening peril. Portions of their catch 
they use for food, the rest is converted into smoked food with which 
they buy women and children slaves, canoes and weapons. They 



96 



CONGO FREE STATE. 



are impregnablj situated as to enemies. Tlieir villages are scenes 
of industry. Long lines of fisli-curers may be seen spreading fisli on 
the platforms ; old men weave nets and sieves ; able-bodied men are 
basket makers and implement makers of various fantastic designs ; 
the women prepare meal and bread, etc., or make crockery ; the 
watermen are skillful canoe builders. 

This was the spot upon which Stanley desired to erect a trading 
station and these were the people with whom he was to negotiate 




1. KNIFE-SHEATH. 2. BASKET. 3. WOODEN BOLSTER. 4. BEE-HIVE. 

for a possession. He had no fears of the result, for it was evident 
that the Arabs and the half-castes of ISTyangwe, beyond, would find 
advantage in a station at which they could obtain cloth, guns, 
knives and all articles of European manufacture at a much cheaper 
rate than from the Eastern coast. A palaver was opened with the 
assembled chiefs, in which Stanley was formally received and stated 
his object. Eeceptions by African chiefs are always very formal. 
Altogether, they are not uninteresting. Livingstone mentions one 
with King Chitapangwa, in which he was ushered into an enormous 



CONGO FREE STATE. 97 

hut where the dignitary sat before tliree drummers and ten more men 
with rattles in their hands. The drummers beat fearfully on their 
drums, and the rattlers kept time, two of them advancing and 
retreating in a stooping posture, with their rattles near the ground, 
as if doing the chief obeisance, but still keeping time with the 
others. After a debate of three days duration the chiefs came to 
terms and ceded sovereignty over the islands and adjacent shores, 
\\dth the right to build and trade. The large island of Wane Eusari 
was selected as the site of the station and a clearing was made for 
building. The question of a supply of vegetable food was settled 
by Siwa-Siwa, an inland chief, who promised to make the garrison 
his children and guaranteed them plenty of garden products. Bin- 
nie, engineer of the Royal^ a plucky little Scotchman of diminutive 
stature, was appointed chief of the new Stanley Falls Station, and 
left in full authority. The boat's crews cleared four acres of ground 
for him, and furnished him with axes, hoes, hammers, nails, flour, 
meats, coflee, tea, sugar, cloths, rods, beads, mugs, pans, and all the 
etceteras of a mid- African equipment. He was given thirty one armed 
men and plenty of ammunition. Then with full instructions as to 
his duty he was left to the care of Providence- 

On December 10th the steamers began their return journey, hav- 
ing reached the full geographic limit marked out by the Brussels 
Committee. The return was to be signalized by obtaining the pro- 
tectorship of the districts intervening between the stations thus far 
established on the Congo, so that the authority of the new State 
should be unbroken fromVivi to Stanley Falls. But this work, on 
second thought, could well be left to others with more time at their 
disposal than had Stanley. Therefore the steamers, taking advan- 
tage of the current, and bearing ten selected men of the native tribes 
about Stanley Falls, each in possession of three ivory tusks, made a 
speedy downward trip. 

Tribe after tribe was passed, some of which had not been seen on 
the ascent, because the steamers were constantly seeking out new 
channels. Whenever it was deemed politic, stops were made, and 
treaties entered into. All on board suffered much from the river 
breezes, heightened by the velocity of the steamers. These breezes 
checked perspiration too suddenly, and some severe prostrations 

0) 



CONGO FEEE STATE. 99 

occurred. By Christmas the flotilla was back to Iboko, where 
thieving was so rampant as to necessitate the seizure of one of the 
offenders and his imprisonment in a steamer. The chief, Kokoro, 
came alongside in a canoe to commend Stanley for ridding the tribe 
of a fellow who could bring such disgrace upon it ; and he was really 
very earnest in his morality till he looked in upon the prisoner and 
found it was his son. Then there was lamentation and offers to buy 
the boy back. Stanley's terms were a restitution of the stolen 
articles, and these not being met, he sailed away with the 
offender, promising to return in ten days to insist upon his condi- 
tions. 

The populous districts of Usimbi and Ubengo were passed. At 
Ukumiri the whole population came out to greet the steamers, as it 
did'at Bungata and Uranga. As many of these places had not been 
visited on the upward journey, it was manifest that word of the 
treaties and the impression made were being gradually and favorably 
disseminated by the canoe-traders. Equator Station was found in a 
flourishing condition. It was January 1st, 1884, when the steamers 
began an upward journey again to Iboko, in order to keep faith with 
Kokoro by returning his son. The old chief, Mata Bwj^ki, was 
indignant at the seizure of one of his subjects, but seeing that Stan- 
ley had returned and was acquainted with the tribal custom that a 
thief could be held till the stolen goods were restored, he fell in with 
his idea of justice, and went so far as to insist on a return of the 
stolen articles, or else the imprisonment which Stanly had inflicted. 
This attitude resulted in a restoration of the property and the tem- 
porary shame of the culprits. 

Again the steamers arrived at Equator Station, where the com- 
mandant had a harrowing tale to tell of how the neighboring Bakut^ 
had losttheir chief and had come to the station to buy the soldier labor- 
ers to the extent of fifty, thinking they were slaves, in order that they 
might sacrifice them over the dead chieftain's grave. It is needless 
to say that they were driven out of the station and given to understand 
that rites so horrid were not sanctioned by civilized people. But 
they succeeded in getting fourteen slaves elsewhere, and had them 
ready for execution on the day of burial. Some of the garrison went 
out to witness the cruel rite. They found the doomed men kneel- 



100 CONGO FREE STATE. 

ing, "with their arms bound behind them. Near by was a tree with 
a rope dangling from it. One of the captives was selected, and the 
rope was fastened round his neck. The tree, which had been bent 
down by the weight of several men, was permitted to assume its 
natural position, and in doing so it carried the victim off his feet. 
The executioner approached with a short, sharp falchion, and striking 
at the neck, severed the head from the body. The remaining cap- 
tives were dispatched in similar manner. Their heads were boiled 
and the skin was taken off, in order that the skulls might orna- 
ment the poles around the grave. The soil saturated with their 
blood was buried with the dead chief, and the bodies were thrown 
into the Congo. Eevolting as it all was, there was no preventive 
except the rifles, and they would have meant war. 

On January 13th the steamers left Equator Station and soon 
arrived at Usindi, where the guide, Yumbila, was paid and dis- 
missed. The next day Lukolela was reached, where some progress 
at station building had gone on, and a healthy condition prevailed. 
Bolobo was the next station but arrival there revealed only a wreck. 
It had been burned a second time, with all the guns, and a terrific 
explosion of the ammunition. The firing was due to the freak of a 
man delirious with fever, who imagined that a conflagration would 
provide him with a burial-scene far more honorable than the butch- 
ery of slaves indulged in by native African potentates. Stanley had 
his suspicions of the story, and could with difficulty believe that the 
destruction was not due to some sinister influences which pervaded 
the Bolobo atmosphere. 

By January 20th the flotilla was back at Kinshassa, in Stanley 
Pool, where much progress had been made. In two hours they were 
at Leopoldville, after an absence of 146 days and a sail of 3,050 
miles. Here everything was flourishing. The houses stood in com- 
fortable rows, and the gardens were bringing forth vegetables in 
abundance. The natives were peacable and ready to trade, the 
magazines Avere full, and as a depot it was adequate for the supply 
of all the up-river stations. Not so, however, with the down river 
stations. They were confused and required attention. Stanley 
therefore prepared a caravan for Vivi. Good-byes were given to the 
friends at Leopoldville, and the huge caravan started on its long 




^Acr»ifie^ of ^le^Vei> 



COifGO FBEE STATE. 101 

journey over hills and prairie stretches, through dales and across 
streams, skirting forests here and piercing them there, past happy, 
peaceful villages, too far from the Congo to be annoyed by its 
ravines. The promising uplands of Ngombe are passed, ruled by 
Lutete, he who in 1882 requested the gift of a white man that he 
might have the pleasure of cutting his throat ! But Lutete has 
been transformed from a ferocious chief into quite a decent citizen. 
Ngombe Station is a peaceable one, and Lutete furnishes the ser- 
vants and carriers for it, besides sending his children to the Baptist 
school. The caravan then passes the Bokongo and lyenzi people, 
noted for their good behaviour. All the land is fertile and the val- 
leys exceedingly rich. Manyanga is reached. The station has not 
advanced, but is confused and ruinous, though probably a cool 
$100,000 has been expended upon it by the Association of the 
Congo. 

Again the caravan takes up its march through the Ndunga 
people and thence down into the broad valley of the Lukunga, 
where Stanley is hospitably received by Mr. and Mrs. Ingham of 
the Livingstone Mission, at their pretty little cottage and school, 
surrounded by a spacious and well tended garden. Westward of 
the Lukunga are plateau lands, like the American prairies, 
covered with tall grass, and capable of raising the richest crops of 
wheat and corn. The plateaus passed, a descent is made into the 
valley of the Kwilu, and then into those of the Luima and Lun- 
ionzo, where the Station of Banza Manteka is reached, close by 
which is a Livingstone Mission house. The prospect from the hill- 
tops here is a grand, embracing sight of nearly a dozen native vil- 
lages whose dwellers are devoted to the cultivation of ground-nuts. 

In six hours the caravan is at Isangila, sight of which station 
filled Stanley with grief, so backward had improvement been. 
Hundreds of bales of stock were rotting there through neglect of 
the commandant to keep the thatched roofs of the houses in repair. 
The country now becomes broken and rugged, and the way obstructed 
with large boulders. All nature here is a counterpart of that rough 
tumultuous channel where thimders the Congo in its last fmrious 
charges to the sea. It is now five miles to Yivi. The height is 1700 
feet above the sea. The air is cool and delicious. The natives are 



102 CONGO FREE STATE. 

peaceful and industrious. There is an English mission on those 
highlands, in the midst of peace and plenty. 

Once at Vivi, Stanley is again grieved, for the commandants had 
done nothing to make it either ornamental or useful. All is barren, 
like the surrounding hills. Not a road had been cut, not a cottage 
thatched. The gardens were in waste, the fences broken. The 
twenty-five whites there were lazily indifferent to their surroundings, 
and without any energy or vivacity except that inspired by Euro- 
pean wine. The native sick list was fearfully large and there was a 
general demand for medicines, till Stanley made an inspection and 
found that they were only feigning sickness as an excuse for idle- 
ness. Shocked at all this Stanley resolved to move the station up 
and away to the larger plateau. He did so, and left it with a reor- 
ganized staff and force, writing home, meanwhile, an account of his 
work. The old and new Yivi stations were connected by a rail- 
road, and b}^ June 1884, the new station had five comfortable houses, 
surrounded by a freshly planted banana orchard. 

On June 6tli Stanley left Vivi for Boma, and took passage on the 
British and African steamer Kinsembo^ on the 10th, for an inspection 
of the West African coast. The steamer stopped at Landana, a fac- 
tory town, with a French mission peeping out of a banana grove on 
an elevation. It next touched at Black Point to take on produce, 
and then at Loango and Mayumbo. It then entered the Gaboon 
country, and stopped off' the town of that name, which is the seat of 
government of the French colony. At Gaboon are several brick 
buildings, stores, hotels, a Catholic and American Protestant 
mission, ten factories and a stone j^ier. It is a neat place, 
and almost picturesque with its hill-dotted houses and tropical 
vegetation. 

The steamer then passed the Spanish town of Elobey, on an island 
of that name, off' the mouth of the Muni river. Pounding Cape 
St. Juan, it next touched at the celebrated island of Fernando-Po, 
whose centre is a peak 10,000 feet high. The country of the Cam- 
maroons now begins — a people even more degraded than those of the 
Congo. Skirting this country, Duke Town, or old Calabar, was 
reached on June 21st. This is thq " Oil river " region of Africa and 
300 barrels of palm-oil awaited the Kinsembo. Stanley took a trip 



CONGO FREE STATE. 103 

inland to Creek Town, where is a Scottisli mission. He was struck 
Avitli tl:c sim'laritj of what he saw to scenes on the Congo — the same 
palms, density of forest, green verdure, reddish loam, hut archi- 
tecture. Only one thing differed, and that was that the residences 
of the native chiefs were of European manufacture. Palm-oil has 
brought them luxurious homes, modernly furnished. The ivory, oil, 
rubber, gum, camwood powder, orchilla, beeswax, grains and spices 
would do the same for Congo at no distant day. 

The steamer next anchored in Bonny river, off the town of Bonny, 
where there is a well-to-do white population and an equally well-to- 
do native population, with many factories and a large traffic. These 
people seem to have solved the difficult problem of African climate, 
and to have dissipated much of the fear which clung to a residence 
on and about the rivers which find their way to the sea in the Bight 
of Benin. Passing New Calabar, anchor is cast off the Benin river, 
in a roadstead where clustered ships from all the principal ports of 
Europe. The Kinserabo is now fully loaded and makes for Quettah 
and then Sierra Leone. Thence sail was set for London Stanley 
got off at Plymouth on July 29th, 1884, and four days later presented 
a report of^his expedition and his mission to the king of Belgium at 
Ostend. 

Some part of the work of founding the Congo Free State had now 
been done. Stanley and his expedition had been instrumental in 
clearing ground, leveling sites, reducing approaches, laying founda- 
tions and building walls. The Bureau of the Association had con- 
tributed means and supplied tools and mortar. But windows were 
now to be placed and roofs put on. Then the fabric must be fur- 
nished and equipped within. The finishing work could only be 
done through the agency of its royal founder. He took it up where 
Stanley laid it down, and applied to the Governments of Europe and 
America- for recognition of what had been done, and for a guarantee 
of such limits as were foreshadowed by the new State. The border 
lands were those of France and Portugal. Treaties, fixing bounda- 
ries, were made with these countries. Precedents were formed in 
the case of the Puritan Fathers, the New Hampshire Colonists, the 
British East India Company, the Liberian Republic, the Colonists 
of Borneo, establishing the right of individuals to build States upon 



104 CONGO FREE STATE. 

cessions of territory and surrenders of sovereignty by cliiefs and rulers 
who hold as original owners. 

Stanley's present to the Association was a series of treaties duly 
ratified by 450 independent African chiefs, who held land by undis- 
turbed possession, ancient usage and divine right. They had not 
been intimidated or coerced, but of their own free will and for valua- 
ble considerations had transferred their sovereignty and ownership 
to the Association. The time had now come for cementing these 
grants and cohering these sovereignties, so that they should stand 
forth as a grand entirety and prove worthy of the name of solid 
empire. 

And just here occurs one of the most interesting chapters in the 
founding of the Congo Free State. As it was to the Welsh- Ameri- 
can Stanley, that the initial work of the grand enterprise was due, so 
it was to his country, the United States of America, that that work 
was preserved and its results turned to the account of the world. 
England, with her usual disregard of international sentiment, and 
in that spirit which implies that her ipse dixit is all there is of 
importance in diplomacy, had made a treaty with Portugal, signed 
February 26th, 1884, recognizing the mouth of the Congo as Portu- 
guese territory, and this in the face of the fact that the mouth of 
that great river had been regarded as neutral territory, and of tlie 
further fact that for half a century England herself had peremptorily, 
refused to recognize Portuguese claims to it. 

This action on the part of England awakened emphatic protest on 
the part of France and Germany, and commercial men in England 
denounced it through fear that Portuguese restrictions on trade would 
destroy Congo commerce entirely. It remained for the United States 
to speak. Her Minister to Belgium, General II. S. Sanford, had all 
along been a faithful coadjutor of the Committee of the International 
Association, and he began to call attention to the danger of the step 
just taken by England. He also reminded the American people 
that to their philanthropy was due the Free States of Liberia, 
founded at a cost of $2,500,000, and to which 20,000 Colored Ameri- 
cans had been sent. He also reminded them that one of their citi- 
zens had rescued Livingstone and thereby called the attention of the 
world to the Congo basin and Central African enterprise. By means 



CONGO FREE STATE. 105 

of these, and other arguments he induced on Congress to examine 
thoroughly the subject of the Congo Free State and Anglo-Portu- 
guese treaty. 

The Committee on Foreign relations reported to the Senate as 
follows : — - 

" It can scarcely be denied that the native chiefs have the right 
to make the treaties they have made with Stanley, acting as the 
representative of the International Association. The able and 
exhaustive statements of Sir Travis Twiss, the eminent English jur- 
, ist, and of Prof Arntz, the no less distinguished Belgian publicist, 
leave no doubt upon the question of the legal capacity of the Afri- 
can International Association, in view of the law of nations, to accept 
any powers belonging to these native chiefs and governments, which 
they may choose to delegate or cede to them. 

" The practical question to which they give an affirmative answer, 
for reasons which appear to be indisputable, is this : ' Can indepen- 
dent chiefs of several tribes cede to private citizens the whole or 
part of their State, with the sovereign rights which pertain to them, 
conformably to the traditional customs of the country? 

" The doctrine advanced in this proposition, and so well sustained 
by these writers, accords with that held by the Government of the 
United States, that the occupants of a country, at the time of its 
discovery by other and more powerful nations, have the right to 
make the treaties for its disposal, and that private persons when 
associated in such a country for self protection, or self government, 
may treat with the inhabitants for any purpose that does not vio- 
late the laws of nations." 

After a patient investigation of all the facts bearing upon the 
Congo question, the United States Senate passed a resolution, April 
10th, 1884, authorizing the President to recognize the International 
African Association as a governing power on the Congo Eiver. 
This recognition by the United States was a new birth for the Asso- 
ciation, whose existence had been menaced by England's treaty with 
Portugal. The European powers, whose protest had thus far been 
impotent, now ably seconded the position taken by this country, 
and the result was a re-action in English sentiment, which bade fair 
to secure such modification, or interpretation, of the Portuguese 



106 CONGO FREE STATE. 

treaty as would secure to the Congo Free State the outlet of the 
Congo River. 

A conference of the nations interested in the new State, and the 
trade of the Congo, was called at Berlin, November 15, 1884. The 
German Empire, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Great 
Britian, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Sweden and Norway, Turkey and 
the United States, were represented. Prince Bismarck formally 
opened the Conference by declaring that it had met to solve three 
problems. 

(1) The free navigation, with freedom of trade on the River Congo. 

(2) The free navigation of the River Niger. 

(3) The formalities to be observed for valid annexation of terri- 
tory in future on the African continent. 

The above propositions opened up a wdde discussion. It was won- 
derful to see the development of sentiment respecting the power of 
the International Association and its territorial limits in Africa. 
England could not stand discussion of her rights on the Niger, and 
the better to. protect them, or rather to withdraw them from the 
arena of debate, she gave full recognition to the International Asso- 
ciation. Germany and Austria both recognized the flag of the Asso- 
ciation. France treated with the Association respecting the boun- 
daries of her possessions on the north. Portugal followed with a 
treaty bj^ which the Association obtained the left, or south bank of 
the Congo from the sea to the Uango-Ango. All the other powers 
present recognized tne Association and signed the Convention with 
it. 

Now for the first time in history there was a Congo Free State 
de jure and de facto. It had legal recognition and rights, and took 
its place among tbe empires of the world. Geographically it had 
bounds, and these are they : 

A strip of land at the mouth of the Congo, 22 miles long, extend- 
ing from Banana Point to Cabo Lombo. 

All of tie north or right bank of the Congo as far as the Cataract 
of Ntombo Mataka, three miles above Manyanga Station, with back 
country inland as far as the Chilonga river. 

All of the south bank of the Cono-o to the Uano;o- Anoo rivulet. 

From the said rivulet to the latitude of Nokki, thence east along 



CONGO I'REE STATE. 107 

that parallel to the Kwa river, thence up the Kwa to S. Lat. 6°, 
thence up the affluent of the Kwa, Lubilash, to the water-shed 
between the Congo and Zambesi, which it follows to Lake Bang- 
weola. 

From the eastern side of Bangweola the line runs north to Lake 
Tanganyika, and follows its western shore to the Rusizi affluent, 
then up this affluent to E. long. 30°, as far as the water-shed, between 
the Congo and Nile. 

Tlience westward to E. long. 17°, and along that rneridian to the 
Likona Basin. 

The Berlin conference not only created a mighty State and sanc- 
tioned its powers and boundaries, but it confirmed unto France a 
noble territory on the north of the Congo equal to any in Africa for 
vegetable production and mineral resources, having an Atlantic 
coast line of 800 miles, giving access to eight river basins, with 
5,200 miles of navigable water, and a total area of 257,000 square 
miles. 

It also settled the boundaries of Portugal on the Alan tic coast, 
giving to her possessions a frontage of 995 miles, and an area larger 
than France, Belgium, Holland and Great Britain combined, rich in 
pastoral lands, oil and rubber forests, minerals and agricultural 
resources, enough to give each one of her people a farm of 33 
acres. 

The territory embraced in the Congo Free State, and dedicated to 
free commerce and enterprise, is equal to 1,600,000 square miles. 
The same privileges were extended to within one degree of the East 
Coast of Africa, subject to rights of Portugal and Zanzibar. This 
would make a privileged commercial zone in Central Africa of 
2,400,000 square miles in. extent. 

While there are at present but few ligitimate traders within this 
vast area to be benefited by these liberal endowments of the Congo 
Free State, the wisdom of setting the territory apart and dedicating 
it to international uses is already apparent. The European powers 
are in hot chase after landed booty in Central Africa. England is 
flying at the throat of Portugal, is jealous of France and Germany, 
is snubbing Italy and is ready to rob Turkey. It is surely one of 
the grandest diplomatic achievements to have rescued so important 



108 CONGO FREE STATE. 

and imposing a portion of a continent from the turmoil which has 
ever characterized, and is now manifest in European greed for landed 
possessions. 

If the Eurepean powers had been permitted to sieze all the coasts 
of the Continent, and the Continent itself, and to levy contributions 
on trade according to their respective wills, they would have forever 
strangled commercial development, except as suited their selfish 
ends. On the other hand the guarantee of the Association that 
its large and productive areas should be free from discrimination 
and oppression, would naturally tempt enterprising spirits to venture 
inland and win a continent from barbarism. The Courts of Law of 
the Association would be everywhere and always open, there would 
be no charges on commerce except those necessary to support the 
government, the liquor traffic might not be abused, a positive pro- 
hibition would rest on the slave trade, the missionary, without 
respect to denomination, would have special protection, scientific 
development would be encouraged, to all these, the powers present 
at the Berlin Conference gave a pledge, with these they endowed 
the Congo Free State. 

Stanley was one of the most conspicuous figures in this memorable 
Conference. He was not a debater, nor even a participant in the 
ordinary acceptation of the term, but he was questioned and 
cross-questioned on every matter relating to African climatology, 
geography, anthropology, mineralogy, geology, zoology, and re- 
sourses, and many a point of controversy turned on his information 
or judgment. 

The International Association, which has in its keeping the Free 
Congo State, ratified, through its President, Col. Strauch, the General 
Act of the Berlin Conference, and. thus made it the Constitution of 
the new State in Central Africa. To the terms of this constitution 
the new State as well as the powers represented at the Conference 
stand bound as against the world. 

The Company of the Congo, for laying and operating a railway 
around the Congo cataracts, was formed under French auspices in 
in February 1887, and by June, the first and second contingent of 
engineers had left for the Congo. When completed the staff' con- 
sisted of one director, twelve engineers and one surgeon. A number 



CONGO FREE STATE. 109 

of Houssas, from tlie Gold Coast, were engaged for the mechanical 
work, and the whole were divided into gangs, each with its special 
work to do, following each other along the route. The work went 
on speedily, and the final observation was taken at Stanley Pool, in 
November, 1888. 

The proposed railway is to extend from a little below Yivi 
(Matadi), up to which large vessels may be taken, past the long 
series of cataracts to Stanley Pool. The total length of the line is 
to be 275 miles. On leaving Matadi it bends away from the Congo 
to the southeast, and keeps at a distance of several miles from the 
river till it approaches Stanley Pool. The first sixteeen miles of the 
route will be attended with considerable difiiculties, while the 
remainder of the line will be laid under exceptionally easy condi- 
tions. It is in the first sixteen miles that there will be any serious 
rock cutting and embankments, and the expense of the construction 
in this part is estimated at $11,548 a mile, while those on the 
remainder of the line will cost much less. In addition to this, there 
will be the cost of erecting aqueducts, building bridges, etc., all of 
which, it is stated, will be much greater in the first few miles, 
than subsequently. On the first few miles, also, there are a few 
steep inclines, but for the rest of the route the inclines are reported to 
be insignificant. There are only three bridges of any size — across the 
Mkesse, the Mpozo and the Kwilu — ranging from 250 feet to 340 
feet ; half a dozen others from 130 feet to 190 feet ; with a number 
very much smaller. The fact is, the engineering difficulties in the 
construction of the proposed railway are insignificant. One of the 
chief considerations will be the climate. The route is situated 
within the rainiest region of Africa, and unless special precautions 
are taken the road, especially in the first section, will be liable to be 
swept away. From this point of view alone it is very doubtful if 
a railway suitable for the region could be built, so as to last, for less 
than $5,000,000. 

The railway will be built on the narrow gauge system. The loco- 
motives, when loaded, will weigh thirty tons, and drag at the rate of 
eleven miles per hour, an average of fifty tons. Thus one train per 
day each way would, if fully loaded, represent a total of 36,000 tons 
per annum — far in excess of any traffic likely to be available for 



110 CONGO FREE STATE, 

many years. The railway, if built, would tap about 7,000 miles of 
navisrable rivers. 

Evidence of the strides forward made by the Congo Free State is 
just now furnished by Mr. Taunt, Commercial Agent of the United 
States at Boma, in his report for 1889 to the Department of State. 
He savs in substance that within the last two years the Congo Free 
State has made a wonderful advancement. liere is now found, 
where for ages has been a jungle, inhabited only by wild beasts and 
wilder men, a well-equipped government. It has its full corps of 
officials, its courts of law, post offices, cnstom stations, a standing 
army of 1,500 men, well officered and drilled, a currency of gold, 
silver, and copper, and all the appliances of a well-ordered govern- 
ment. 

Boma, the seat of Government of the Congo Free State, is situ- 
ated upon the Congo, about ninety miles from its mouth. Here are 
the residences of the Governor and of the lesser officials, and here 
are established the Courts and the Governmental departments. The 
army is well distributed at different stations along the banks of the 
river, and does excellent service in policing the stream against the 
incursions of the Arabs. 

The port of entry of the Congo Free State, is Banana settlement 
at the mouth of the Congo. Four lines of steamers, British, German, 
Portuguese, and French, make frequent connection between the 
settlements and European ports. A Dutch line also runs a steamer 
to the Congo in infrequ.ent trips. Cable communication is already 
established between Europe and two points easily accessible from 
the mouth of the Congo, and telegraphic connection will doubtless, 
soon be made with Banana. 

All these arrangements are, of course, only auxiliaries to the great 
trading interests already established in the region of the Congo. In 
this trade the merchants of Eotterdam lead, having stations estab- 
lished for hundreds of miles both north and south of the river. Dur- 
ing the last two years they have penetrated even to the Upper Congo 
and established trading stations at Stanley Falls, a point 1,500 
miles distant from the mouth of the river. This Company employs 
a large force of white agents, and is largely interested in the raising 
of coffee, tobacco, cocoa, and other products of the tropics. 



CONGO FREE STATE. Ill 

Holland alone lias not been allowed to occupy tliis .rich field. 
French, English, Portuguese, and Belgium capitalists have seen the 
advantages to be derived from this occupation of a new soil, and have 
not been slow to seize their opportunities. The last named, especi- 
ally, are making preparations for the investment of a large amount 
of capital in this new and productive field. 

In the Congo Free State, as thus opened to the trade of the world, 
is supplied a market in which American manufacturers should be 
able successfully to compete. There is a great demand for cotton 
goods, canned food, cutlery, lumber, and ready-built frame houses. 
Manchester has already monopolized the trade in cotton goods, 
which, in the further extension of trading posts, is capable of almost 
indefinite expansion. Birmingham and Sheffield supply brass wire 
beads, and cutlery, and England and France now supply the demand 
for canned foods. It would seem that the markets of the United 
States should supply, a portion at least of this great demand for 
manufactured articles. In the items of lumber and canned foods 
surely we should be able to compete successfully with Europe, 
although it would seem probable that the establishment of saw mills 
upon the Congo should soon serve to do away with the demand for 
the first named of these articles. 

The one desideratum, without which our manufacturers cannot hope 
to open up a prosperous trade with the Congo Free State, is a direct 
line of steamships from Boma to some American port. Without 
this, the added freights from this country to Europe for trans- 
shipment to the Congo would, it would seem, be an insurmount- 
able bar to a profitable trade, however desirable such trade might be. 

As has been already observed, in order to insure from the natives 
a loyal observance of their promises, Stanley made a treaty with 
each chief along the course of the Congo, to the general efi'ect that, 
in consideration of certain quantities of cloth to be paid them 
monthly, they should abstain from acts of aggression aud violence 
against their neighbors. The design of these treaties was to insure 
peace among the tribes themselves. Other agreements and treaties 
were also made, designed to secure such transfers of their sovereignty 
to the International Commission, as would enable it to organize the 
Congo Free State. 



112 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

As these forms are novel, we give such of them as will enable a 
reader to understand the preliminary steps toward the formation of 
this new State. 

PRELIMINARY DECLARATION. 

We, the undersigned chiefs of Nzungi, agree to recognize the 
sovereignty of the African International Association, and in sign 
thereof, adopt its flag (blue, with a golden star). We declare we 
shall keep the road open and free of all tax and impost on all 
strangers arriving with the recommendation of the agents of the 
above Association. 

All troubles between ourselves and neighbors, or with strangers 
of any nationality, we shall refer to the arbitration of the above 
Association. 

We declare that we have not made any written or oral agreement 
with any person previous to this that would render this agreement 
null and void. 

We declare that from henceforth we and our successors shall 
abide by the decision of the representatives of the Association in 
all matters affecting our welfare or our possessions, and that we shall 
not enter into any agreement with any person without referring all 
matters to the chief of Manyanga, or the chief of Leopoldville, or act 
in any manner contrary to the tenor or spirit of this agreement. 

Witnesses : Keekuru (his x mark), 

DuALLA (his X mark). Chief of Nzungi. 

of Chami, Pard. Nseka (his x mark), 

MwAMBA (his X mark), Chief of Banza Mbuba, 

of Makitu's. ISTzako (his x mark), 

of Banza Mbuba. 
Insila Mpaka, (his X mark), 

of Banza Mbuba. 
IsiAKi (his X mark). 

Chief of Banza Mbuba. 

FORMS OF A TREATY. 

Henry M. Stanley, commanding the Expedition on the Upper Congo, 
acting in the name and on behalf of the " African International 



CONGO FREE STATE. IISl 

Association," and the king and chiefs Ngombi and Mafela, having 
met together in conference at South Manyanga, have, after dehbera- 
tion, concluded the following treaty, viz : — 

Article I. — -The chiefs of Ngombi and Mafela recognize that it 
is highly desirable that the "African International Association" 
should, for the advancement of civilization and trade, be firmly 
established in their country. They therefore now, freely of their own 
accord, for themselves and their heirs and successors forever, do 
give up to the said Association the sovereignty and all sovereign 
and governing rights to all their territories. They also promise to 
assist the said Association in its work of governing and civilizing 
this country, and to use their influence with all the other inhabi- 
tants, with whose unanimous approval they make this treaty, to 
secure obedience to all laws made by said Association, and assist by 
labor or otherwise, any works, improvements, or expeditions, w^hich 
the said Association shall cause at anytime to be carried out in any 
part of the territories. 

Art. II. — -The chief of Ngombi and Mafela promise at all times 
to join their forces with those of the said Association, to resist the 
forcible intrusion or repulse the attacks of foreigners of any nation- 
ality or color. 

Art. III. — The country thus ceded has about the following boun- 
daries, viz : The whole of the Ngombi and Mafela countries, and 
any other tributary to them ; and the chiefs of Ngombi and Mafela 
solemnly affirm that all this country belongs absolutely to them ; that 
they can freely dispose of it ; and that they neither have already, 
nor will on any future occasion, make any treaties, grants or sales of 
any parts of these territories to strangers, without the permission of 
the said Association. All roads and waterways running through 
this country, the right of collecting tolls on the same, and all game, 
fishing, mining, and forest rights, are to be the absolute property of 
the said Association, together with any unoccupied lands as may at 
any time hereafter be chosen. 

Art. IY. — The " African International Association " agrees to 
pay to the chiefs of Ngombi and Mafela the following articles of 
merchandise, viz : One piece of cloth per month, to each of the 
undersigned chiefs, besides presents of cloth in hand ; and the said 



114 CONGO FREE STATE. 

chiefs hereby acknowledge to accept this bounty and monthly sub- 
sidy in full settlement of all their claims on the said Association. 
Art. Y. — The "African International Association" promises: — 

1. To take from the natives of this ceded country no occupied or 
cultivated lands, except by mutual agreement. 

2. To promote to its utmost the prosperity of the said country. 

3. To protect its inhabitants from all oppression or foreign intru- 
sion. 

4. Il> authorizes the chiefs to hoist its flag ; to settle all local 
disputes or palavers ; and to maintain its authority with the 
natives. 

Agreed to, signed and witnessed, this 1st day of April, 1884, 

Henry M. Stanley, 
Witnesses to the sig-natures : Sonki (his x mark), 
E. Spencer Burns. Senior Chief of Ngombi, 

D. Lehrman. Mamynpa (his x mark), 

DuALLA. Senior Chief of Mafela 

JOINT agreement AND TREATY. 

We, the undersigned chiefs of the districts placed opposite our 
names below, do hereby solemnly bind ourselves, our heirs and suc- 
cessors for the purpose of mutual support and protection, to observe 
the following articles : — 

Article I. — We agree- to unite and combine together, under the 
" name and title of the " New Confederacy," — that is, our respective dis- 
tricts, their homes and villages shall be embraced by one united ter- 
ritory, to be henceforth known as the New Confederacy 

Art. II. — We declare that our objects are to unite our forces and 
our means for the common defence of all the districts comprised 
within said territory ; to place our forces and our means under such 
organization as we shall deem to be best for the common good of the 
people and the welfare of the Confederacy. 

Art. III. — The New Confederacy may be extended by the 
admission of all such districts adjoining those mentioned before, 
when tlieir chiefs have made application, and expressed their consent 
to the articles herein mentioned, 



CONGO FREE STATE, 115 

Art. TV. — We, tlie people of the New Confederacy, adopt the 
bhie flag with the golden star in the centre for our banner. 

Art. Y. — -The confederated districts guarantee that the treaties 
made between them shall be respected. 

Art. VI. — The public force of the Confederacy shall be organized 
at the rate of one man out of every two men able to bear arms ; of 
native or foreign volunteers. 

Art. YII — The organization, the armament, equipment, subsist- 
ence of this force, shall be confided to the chief agent in Africa of 
the "Association of the Upper Congo." 

To the above articles, which are the result of various conventions 
held between district and district, and by which we have been ena- 
bled to understand the common wish, we, sovereign chiefs and others 
of the Congo district hereby append our names, pledging ourselves 
to adhere to each and every article. 

[Names of Signers.] 



TPhie Berlin Conference. 

The Berlin Conference which settled the contributions of the 
Congo Free State, and secured for it the recognition of the principal 
civilized nations of the world, commenced its sitting at half past 
two o'clock, on the 26th of February, 1885, under the Presidency of 
His Highness, Prince Bismarck. The Prince opened the closing 
session Conference by saying : " Our Conference, after long and 
laborious deliberations, has reached the end of its work, and I am 
glad to say that, thanks to your efforts and to that spirit of concili- 
ation which had presided over our proceedings, a complete accord 
has been come to on every point of the programme submitted to us. 

" The resolutions which we are about to sanction formally, secure 
to the trade of all nations free access to the interior of the African 
Continent. The guarantees by which the freedom of trade will be 
assured in the Congo basin, and the whole of the arrangements 
embodied in the rules for the navigation of the Congo and the 
Niger, are of such a nature as to afford the commerce and industry 



116 CONGO FREE STATE. 

of all nations tlie most favorable conditions for their development 
and security. 

"In another series of regulations you have shown your 'solicitude 
for the moral and material welfare of the native population, and we 
may liojDe that those principles, adopted in a spirit of wise modera- 
tion, will bear fruit, and help familiarize those populations with the 
benefit of civilization. 

"The particular conditions under which are placed the vast 
regions you have just opened up to commercial enterprise, have 
seemed to require special guarantQe for the preservation of peace 
and public order. In fact, the scourge of war would become particu- 
larly disastrous if the natives were led to take sides in the disputes 
between civilized Powers. Justly apprehensive of the dangers 
that such event might have for the interest of commerce and civiliza- 
tion, you have sought for the means of withdrawing a great part of 
the African Continent from the vicissitudes of general politics, in 
confining therein the rivalry of nations to peaceful emulation in 
trade and industry. 

"In the same manner you have endeavored to avoid all mis- 
understanding and dispute to which fresh annexations on the 
African coast might give rise. The declaration of the formali- 
ties required before such annexation can be considered effective, 
introduces a new rule, into public law, while in its turn will 
remove many a cause of dissent and conflict from our international 
relations. 

"The spirit of mutual good understanding which has distinguished 
your deliberations has also presided over the negotiations that have 
been carried on outside the Conference, with a view to arrange the 
difficult question of delimitation between the parties exercising sov- 
ereign rights in the Congo basin, and which, by their position, 
are destined to be the chief guardians of the work we are about to 
sanction. 

"I cannot touch on this subject without bearing testimony to 
the noble efforts of His Majesty, the King of the Belgians, the founder 
of a work which now has gained the recognition of almost all the 
Powers, and which, as it grows, will render valuable service to the 
cause of humanity. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 117 

"Gentlemen, I am requested by His Majesty, the Emperor and 
King, my august Master, to convey to you his warmest thanks for 
the part each of 3^ou has taken in the felicitous accomplishment of the 
work of the Conference. 

"I fulfil a final duty in gratefully acknowledging what the Con- 
ference owes to those of its members who undertook the hard work 
of the Commission, notably to the Baron de Courcel and to Baron 
Lambermont. I have also to thank the delegates for the valuable 
assistance they have rendered us, and I include in this expression of 
thanks the secretaries of the Conference, who have facilitated our 
deliberations by the accuracy of their work. 

"Like the other labors of man, the work of this Conference may 
be improved upon and perfected, but it will, I hope, mark an 
advance in the development of international relations and form a 
new bond of union between the nations of the civilized world." 



General A.ct of tine Conference Re= 
specting the Congo F^ree State. 

CHAPTER I. 

DECLARATION RELATIVE TO THE FREEDOM OF COMMERCE IN" THE 
BASIN" OF THE CONGO, ITS MOUTHS AND CIRCUMJACENT DISTRICTS, 
WITH CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS CONNECTED THERE"WITH. 

Article I. — The trade of all nations shall be entirely free : 
1. In all territories constituting the basin of the Congo and its 
affluents. The basin is bounded by the crests of adjoining basins — - 
that is to say, the basins of the Niari, of the Ogowe, of the Shari, and 
of the Nile towards the north ; by the line of the eastern ridge 
of the affluents of Lake Tanganyika towards the east; by the 
crests of the basin of the Zambesi and the Loge towards the south. 
It consequently embraces all the territories drained by the Congo 
and its affluents, comprising therein Lake Tanganyika and its east- 
em tributaries. 



118 CONGO FREE STATE. 

2. In the maritime zone extending along the Atlantic Ocean from 
the parallel of 2° 30' south latitude to the mouth of the Loge. The 
northern limit will follow the parallel of 2° 30' from the coast until 
it reaches the geographical basin of the Congo, avoiding the basin 
of the Ogowe, to which the stipulations of the present Act do not 
apply. 

The southern limit will follow the course of the Loge up to the 
source of that river, and thence strike eastwards to its junction with 
the geographical basin of the Congo. 

3. In the zone extending eastwards from the basin of the Congo 
as limited above herein, to the -Indian Ocean, from the fifth degree 
of north latitude to the mouth of the Zambesi on the south ; from 
this point the line of demarcation will follow the Zambesi up stream 
to a point five miles beyond its junction with the Shire, and continue 
by the line of the ridge dividing the waters which flow towards 
Lake Nyassa from the tributary waters of the Zambesi, until it 
joins the line of the water-parting between the Zambesi and the 
Congo. It is expressly imderstood that in extending to this eastern 
zone the principle of commercial freedom, the Powers represented 
at the Conference bind only themselves, and that the principle will 
apply to territories actually belonging to some independent and 
sovereign state only so far as that state consents to it. The Powers 
agree to employ their good ofl&cers among the established Govern- 
ments on the African coast of the Indian Ocean, to obtain such 
consent, and in any case to ensure the most favorable conditions to 
all nations. 

Article II. 

All flags, without distinction of nationality, shall have free access 
to all the coast of the territories above enumerated ; to the rivers 
which therein flow to the sea ; to all the waters of the Congo and its 
affluents, including the lakes ; to all the canals that in the future may 
be cut with the object of uniting the water-courses or the lakes com- 
prised in the whole extent of the territories described in Article I. 
They can undertake all kinds of transport, and engage in maritime 
and fluvial coasting, as well as river navigation, on the same footing 
as the natives. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 119 

Article III. 

Goods from every source imported into these territories, under any 
flag whatever, either by way of the sea, the rivers, or the land, shall 
pay no taxes except such as are equitable compensation for the 
necessary expenses of the trade, and which can meet with equal 
support from the natives and from foreigners of every nationality. 

All differential treatment is forbidden both with regard to ships 
and goods. 

Article IV. 

Goods imported into these territories will remain free of all charges 
for entry and transit. 

The Powers reserve to themselves, until the end of a period of 
twenty years, the right of deciding if freedom of entry shall be 
maintained or not. 

Article Y. 

Every Power which exercises, or will exercise, sovereign rights in 
the territories above mentioned, cannot therein concede any monopoly 
or privilege of any sort in commercial matters. 

Foreigners shall therein indiscriminately enjoy the same treatment 
and rights as the natives in the protection of their persons and 
goods, in the acquisition and transmission of their property, movable 
and immovable, and in the exercise of their professions. 

Article VI. 

PEOvisioisrs relative to the protection of the natives, to 

missionaries and travelers, and to religious liberty. 

All the Powers exercising sovereign rights, or having influence in 
the said territories, undertake to watch over the preservation of the 
native races, and the amelioration of the moral and material condi- 
tions of their existence, and to co-operate in the suppression of 
slavery, and, above all, of the slave trade ; they will protect and 
encourage, without distinction of nationality or creed, all institutions 
and enterprises, religious, scientific, or charitable, established and 
organized for these objects, or tending to educate the natives and 
lead them to understand and appreciate the advantages of civili- 
zation. 



120 CONGO FREE STATE. 

Christian missionaries, men of science, explorers and their escorts 
and collections, to be equally the object of special protection. 

Liberty of conscience and religious tolerations are expressly guar- 
teed to the natives as well as to the inhabitants and foreigners. 
The free public exercise of every creed, the right to erect religious 
buildings and to organize missions belonging to every creed, shall 
be subjected to no restriction or impediment whatever. 

Article YII. 

POSTAL arrangements. 

The Convention of the Postal Union, revised at Paris, on June 1, 
1878, shall apply to the said basin of the Congo. 

The Powers which there exercise, or ^vill exercise, rights of sover- 
eignty or protectorate, undertake, as soon as circumstances permit, to 
introduce the necessary measures to give effect to the above 
resolutions. 

Article VIII. 

RIGHT OF surveillance CONFERRED ON THE INTERNATIONAL COM- 
MISSION FOR THE NAVIGATION OF THE CONGO. 

In all parts of the territory embraced in the present Declaration, 
where no Power shall exercise the rights of sovereignty or pro- 
tectorate, the International Commission, for the navigation of the 
Congo, constituted in accordance with Article XVII, shall be 
intrusted with the surveillance of the application of the principles 
declared and established in this Declaration. 

In all cases of difficulties arising, relative to the application of the 
principles established by the present Declaration, the Governments 
interested shall agree to appeal to the good offices of the Interna- 
tional Commission,' leaving to it the examination of the facts which 
have given rise to the difficulties. 



CHAPTER II. 

DECLARATION CONCERNING THE SLAVE TRADE. 

Article IX. 
In conformity with the principles of the right of natives as recog- 
nized by the signatory Powers, the slave trade being forbidden, and 



CONGO FREE STATE. 121 

operations, whicli on land or sea supply slaves for the trade, being 
equally held to be forbidden, the Powers, which exercise or will 
exercise rights of sovereignty or influence in the territories forming 
the basin of the Congo, declare that these territories shall serve 
neither for the place of sale, nor the way of transit for traffic in 
slaves of any race whatsoever. Each of the Powers undertakes to 
employ every means that it can to put an end to the trade and to 
punish those who engage in it. 



CHAPTER III. 

DECLARATION" RELATING TO THE NEUTRALITY OF THE TERRITORIES 
COMPRISED IN THE SAID BASIN OF THE CONGO. 

Article X. 
In order to give a new guarantee of security for commerce and 
industry, and to encourage by the maintenance of peace the develop- 
ment of civilization in the countries mentioned in Article I, or 
placed under the system of free trade, the High Parties signatory to 
ttie present Act, and those who will accept the same, hereby under- 
take to respect the neutrality of the territories or parts of the terri- 
tories dependent on the said countries, comprising therein the terri- 
torial waters, for so long as the Powers, which exercise, or will 
exercise, the rights of sovereignty or protectorate over the terri- 
tories, avail themselves of the right to proclaim them neutral, and 
fulfill the duties that neutrality implies. 

Article XI. 
In cases where a Power exercising the rights of sovereignty or 
protectorate in the countries as mentioned in Article I, and placed 
under tlie system of free trade, shall be involved in war, the High 
Parties signatory to the present A ct, and those who will accept the 
same, hereby engage to use their good officers so that the territories 
belonging to that Power, and comprised within the said boundaries 
where free trade exists, shall, by the mutual consent of that Power 
and of the other, or others, of the belligerent parties, be held to be 
neutral, for so long as the war lasts, and considered as 
belonging to a non-belligerent state, the belligerent parties will 



122 CONGO FREE STATE. 

then abstain from extending hostilities into such neutrahzed terri' 
tories as well as from using them as a base for operations of war. 

Article XII. 

In the event of a serious disagreement originating on the subject, 
or arising within the limits of the territories mentioned in Article I 
and placed under the system of freedom of trade, between Powers 
signatory to the present Act, or Powers accepting the same, these 
Powers undertake, before appealing to arms, to have recourse to the 
mediation of one or several of the friendly Powers. 

Under the said circumstances the said Powers reserve to them- 
selves the option of proceeding to arbitration. 



CHAPTEE IV. 

ACT OF THE NAVIGATION" OF THE CONGO. 

Article XIII. 

The navigation of the Congo, without any exception of any 
branches or issues of the river, is to remain entirely free for mer- 
chant shipping of all nations in cargo or ballast, for the carriage of 
cargo or the carriage of passengers. It shall be in accordance with 
the provisions of the present Act of navigation, or of the regulations 
established in execution of the said Act. 

In the exercise of that navigation, the subjects and flags of all 
nations, shall, under all circumstances, be treated on a footing of 
absolute equality, as well as regards the direct navigation from the 
open sea towards the interior parts of the Congo, and vice versa, as 
for grand and petty coasting, and boat and river work all along 
the river. 

Consequently, throughout the Congo's course and mouth, no 
distinction shall be made between the subjects of the river-side 
States, and those not bordering on the river, and no exclusive privi- 
lege of navigation shall be granted either to societies, corporations 
or individuals. 

These provisions are recognized by the signatory Powers, as 
henceforth forming part of public international law. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 125 

Article XIV. 

The navigation of the Congo shall not be subjected to any re- 
straints or imposts which are not expressly stipulated for in the present 
Act. It shall not be burdened with any duties for harborage stop- 
pages, depots, breaking bulk, or putting in through stress of weatlier. 

Throughout the length of the Congo, ships and merchandise pass- 
ing along the stream shall be subject to no transit dues, no matter 
what may be their origin or destination. 

There shall not be established any tolls, marine or river, based on 
the fact of navigation alone, nor shall any duty be imposed on the 
merchandise on board the vessels. Such taxes and duties only shall 
be levied, as are of the character of renumeration for services ren- 
dered, to the said navigation. That is to say : — 

(1) Taxes of the port for the actual use of certain local establish- 
ments, such as wharves, warehouses etc. The tariff' of such taxes 
to be caclulated on the expenses of construction and support of 
the said local establishments, and in its application to be indepen- 
dent of the origin of the vessels and their cargo. 

(2) Pilotage dues on sections of the river, or where it appears neces- 
sary to establish stations of certificated pilots. 

The tariff' of these dues to be fixed and proportionate to the ser- 
vices rendered. 

(3) Dues in respect of the technical and administrative expenses, 
imposed in the general interest of the navigation, and comprising 
light-houses, beacon, and buoyage dues. 

Dues of the last description to be based on the tonnage of the 

ships, according to the papers on board, and to be conformable to 

the regulations in force on the Lower Danube. 

The tariff's of the taxes and dues mentioned in the three preceding 
paragraphs are not to admit of any diff'erential treatment, and are to 
be officially published in each port. 

The Powers reserve to themselves the right, at the end of five 
years, by mutual agreement, to inquire into the above-mentioned 
tariffs in case they require revision. 

Article XV. 

The affluents of the Congo shall, under all circumstances, be subject 
to the same regulations as the river of which they are the tributaries. 



124 CONGO FREE STATE. 

The same regulations shall apply to the lakes and canals as to 
the rivers and streams in the territories defined in Article I, para- 
graphs 2 and 3. 

Nevertheless the Powers of the International Commission of the 
Congo shall not extend over the said rivers, lakes and canals, unless 
with the assent of the States under whose sovereignty they are 
placed. It is also understood that for the territories mentioned in 
Article I, paragraph 3, the consent of the sovereign States on whom 
these territories are dependent remains reserved. 

Article XYI, 

The roads, railways, or lateral canals, which shall be established 
for the special object of supplementing the innavigability or imper- 
fections of the water-way in certain sections of the Congo, of its 
affluents and other water-courses held to be like unto them by 
Article XV, shall be considered in their capacity as means of com- 
munication as dependencies of the river, and shall be likewise open 
to the trafl&c of all nations. 

And as on the river, there shall be levied on these roads, rail- 
ways and canals only tolls calculated on the expenses of construction, 
maintenance and administration, and on the profits due to the pro- 
moters. 

In the assessment of these tolls, foreigners and the inhabitants 
of the respective territories shall be treated on a footing of perfect 
equality. 

Article XYII. 

An International Commission is instituted and appointed to 
ensure the execution of the provisions of the present Act of Navi- 
gation. 

The Powers signatory to this Act, as well as those who afterwards 
accept it, shall at all times be represented on the said Commission, 
each by a delegate. No delegate shall have more than one vote, even 
in the event of his" representing several governments. 

This delegate shall be paid by his own government direct. The 
salaries and allowances of the agents and servants of the Interna- 
tional Commission shall be charged to the proceeds of the dues levied 
conformably to Article XIV, paragraphs 2 and 3. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 125 

The amounts of said salaries and allowances, as well as the num- 
ber, position and duties of the agents and servants, shall appear in 
•the account rendered each year to the Governments represented on 
the International Commission. 

Article XYIII. 

The members of the International Commission, as well as the 
agents nominated by them, are invested with the privilege of 
inviolability in the exercise of their functions. The same guarantee 
shall extend to the ofl&ces, premises and archives of the Com- 
mission. 

Article XIX. 

The International Commission for the navigation of the Congo, 
shall be constituted as soon as five of the signatory Powers of the 
present General Act shall have nominated their delegates. Pending 
the constitution of the Commission, the nomination of the delegates 
shall be notified to the Government of the German Empire, by 
whom the necessary steps will be taken to manage the meeting of 
the Commission. 

The Commission will draw up, without delay, the arrangements 
for the navigation, river police, pilotage and quarantine. 

These regulations, as well as the tariffs, instituted by the Com- 
mission, before being put in force, shall be submitted to the appro- 
bation of the Powers represented on the Commission. The powers 
interested, shall declare their opinion therein with the least possible 
delay. 

Offences against these regulations shall be dealt with by the 
agents of the International Commission, where it exercises its 
authority direct, and in other places by the river-side Powers. 

In case of abase of power or injustice on the part of an agent or ser- 
vant of the International Commission, the individual considering him- 
self injured in his person or his rights, shall apply to the consular agent 
of his nation. He will inquire into his complaint, and if prima 
facie^ he finds it reasonable, he shall be entitled to report it to the 
Commission. On his initiative, the Commission, represented by 
three or fewer of its members, shall join with him in an inquiry 
touching the conduct of its agent or servant. If the Consular 



126 CONGO FREE STATE. 

agent considers the decision of the Commission as objectionable in 
law, he shall report to the Government, who shall refer to the 
Powers represented on the Commission, and invite them to agree as 
to the instructions to be given to the Commission. 

Article XX. 

The International Commission of the Congo, entrusted under the 
terms of Article XYII, with insuring the execution of the present 
Act of Navigation, shall specially devote its attention to : — 

(1.) The indication of such works as are necessary for insuring 
the navigability of the Congo, in accordance with the requirements 
ments of international trade. 

On sections of the river where no Power exercises rights of sover- 
eignty, the international Commission shall itself take the measures 
necessary for insuring the navigability of the stream. 

On sections of the river occupied by a sovereign Power, the Inter- 
national Commission shall arrange with the river-side authority. 

(2.) The fixing of the tariff for pilotage, and of the general 
tariff of navigation dues, provided for in the second and third para- 
graphs of Article XIV. 

The tariffs mentioned in the first paragraph of Article XIV, shall 
be settled by the territorial authority within the limits provided for 
in that article. 

The collection of these dues shall be under the care of the inter- 
national or territorial authority, on whose account they have been 
established. 

3. The administration of the revenues accruing from the applica- 
tion of the foregoing paragraph 2. 

4. The surveillance of the quarantine establishment instituted in 
compliance with Article XXIV. 

5. The nomination of agents for the general service of the naviga- 
tion and its own particular servants. 

The appointment of sub-inspectors shall belong to the territorial 
authority over sections occupied by a Power, and to the International 
Commission over the otlier sections of the river. 

The river-side Power will notify to the International Commission 
the nomination of its sub-inspectors which it shall have appointed, 
and this Power shall pay their salaries. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 127 

In the exercise of its duties, as defined and limited above, the Inter- 
national Commission shall not be subject to the territorial authority. 

Article XXI. 

In the execution of its task, the International Commission shall 
have recourse, in case of need, to the vessels of war belonging to 
the signatory Powers of this Act, and to those which in the future 
shall accept it, if not in contravention of the instructions which 
shall have been given to the commanders of those vessels by their 
respective governments. 

Article XXII. 

The vessels of war of the Powers signatory to the present Act 
which enter the Congo are exempt from the payment of the naviga- 
tion dues provided for in paragraph 3 of Article XIV ; but they shall 
pay the contingent pilotage dues as well as the harbor dues, unless 
their intervention has been cTemanded by the International Commis- 
sion or its agents under the terms of the preceding Article. 

Article XXIII. 

With the object of meeting the technical and administrative 
expenses which it may have to incur, the International Commission, 
instituted under Article XVII, may in its own name issue loans 
secured on the revenues assigned to the said Commission. 

The resolutions of the Commission regarding the issue of a loan 
must be carried b}^ a majority of two-thirds of its votes. It is 
understood that the Governments represented on the Commission 
shall not, in any case, be considered as assuming any guarantee nor 
contracting any engagement or joint responsibility with regard to 
said laws, unless special treaties are concluded amongst them to that 
effect. 

The proceeds of the dues specified in the third paragraph of Arti- 
cle XIV shall be in the first place set aside for the payment of 
interest and the extinction of said loans, in accordance with the 
agreements entered into with the lenders. 

Article XXIV. 
At the mouths of the Congo there shall be founded, either at the 
iiiitiation of the river-side Powers, or by the intervention of the 



12H CoNcJo I''l!|i;i0 MTA'l'li;. 

I iilci'ii:ili<)ii:i.l < '(HiiiniHMioii, ;i, ((ii;ii-;iiil iiui ('.MliihliHliiiiciii, wliicJi sliiill 
(!X()iv,iH(W'.<nih(>l (i\('i' iJic vchmc.Ih ciiUTiii;'; ;iii(I (lc|iii,i'rm;.';. 

Il, hIiiiII 1x1 (Iccidcd l.iidi' on |»v i.lii^ rowers, if itiiy, iiiid iiii(l(!i' wliiit 
• •tuidilioiiM, Hii,iiil;ii'v foiit.rol hIuiJI Ik^ cNcixiiHcMl over vchhiiIh iiavigatiiij^ 
iJid ri vcf. 

A unci, K \.\V. 

'I'lid |M(>vi,Mii»iiM ul' Ihc |ii(',sciil, Acl (>r N;ivi,":iii()ii nli:ill i-('in:iiii in 
lurce (liinii;- t,iiiicM (»r \v;ii'. ( 'oiimci |ii(^iil I \', llic, ii;i\i;';il ion of all 
niilioHM, ncnifal and l)clli;MTenl, MJiall al, all limes \)v. ['rv.v. lor tJui 
|(nr|)oHcM of t.nidd on IIk^ ( !on^';o, IIh hranclicH, ils alllnciil.s, and IIm 
iiH)ntliH, an Wdll aM on lln; tcrrltoriaJ vvaUirH IVonlin^i,' tlic- nM)nl.liM of 
I he riser. 

'I'lie Irallic, nludl libnviMe remain free, not vvitliMlandin;"; llui stiito 
ol' war, on itn roads, railways, lakes and cainds, as mentioned in 
Articles W ;nid \ \' I. 

The only (\\e,e|)tion lo this |>rinei|)le shall he in eases in eonnoo- 
tion with the li'ansport of ;lrtieI(^s intended toi- a helJij'ercMit, and 
held in aceord;! nee wdh the law otnalions to he eonlr;d>and of wai'. 

All the works and estaJilishments institnted in exeentjon of the 
presenl Act, part ienlarly t he olliees ol' eolleet ion and t heii" fnnds, tlu; 
same as the slalV |iermanenll\' allaehed to the sei'\ ice of sneh estah- 
menls, shall helrealedas nenlral, and shall he respeeled and pro- 
teet.ed 1>\ I he l>el liferents. 



(MiAr'rMi: \'. 

'niK ACT Ol'' NAVICAMMON ( M'' I'lll'', NKIK.i:. 
Aktici.k \\\'1. 

The na\i!>:ation iA' the N iryr, withont- exeeptin;'; an\' iA' ilic 
hranehes or issnes, is, and shall eontinni^ IVt^e tor mert-.hant M-sst'lsol' 
all nations, in ear; mi or hallasi, eon\ cNiii;'; j-oods or eon\e\ini;' passen- 
<-';ers. It shall lu' eondneted in aeeordanee wdh thc^ provisions of 
the present Ael ol' Navii'.alion, and with the re^nlations eslablislied 
in t>\eention o\' I he same Act. 

In the exereise of that naN'ipdion, the. sid>ii>ets anil lla^s of evi'rv 
nation shall he treated, nndei'all eiri'ninstanees, on a footing;' of ])er' 



CONGO KHKK H'l'A'I'K. \'Z',i 

fec.t equality, aH wcjll id IJh; dinicl navigation Crorn tliC/ open Hea 
tot}ieint<;ri<;r portHoCtiK! N'\i/(',r/.u\<\ vi/yi vcr.'id^ an Corpnuxl and \)cAiy 
coaHting, ;ui<l in lM);it ;ui'l riv<;r wofi: tlir<»n;'li()ut its confH*;. 

ConHequ(!ntly tiiroij^i'hout IIk; l';n;'tl) ;ui(l nionlli;-; of tli<; Niyisr, 
th(;r(; nliiiJI he iiodiHtirxition hciw-'-.n tin; i-;i)l)j<;<'.1,i-i, of tlx; I'i v<;(r;i<i(! 
StateH, iU)(J tlio.se oCStateH not honlcrin;/ on tlie nvi;r, jukI tli(;r(! 
HlniJl Im; c.onxieded no cxeluHiv; pfi vil';,"<; ol n;i,vi^';aiion to any Koei- 
ety, or eor[)oratiori or individu;d. 

^rii(!He proviHionH ;ir<! n;c,o;'iiiH(;d by tin; Hi^oiatory l'o\v(;r,s aH lienee- 
i'ortli forniin;' p;ift oC pnbli': int(;rn;i.tion;d I;j,w, 

AltTIOhK XX VII. 

^rin; n;i,vI;'!i,tion of tlie Niger Hliall not \)<; .su))Ject(!d to luiy ob,sta- 
cle nor duty h;i,s<;d only on ttie (jict ol' tin; n;i,viji;;i,ti(n). 

It Hli;dl not \)(' .suljj(;et to iuiy duticH lor Inirboragc, HtoppageH, 
<lepotH, hr<;aking- hulk, or putting; into port tliron;.'!) HtrcSH ol 
w<!atlier. 

Tlirou^'-liont tli<; l<;n;/tli <>\' tlx; Nif.';*;r, veHWjJH luid j.'oodH paHHinj/; 
alon;/; the Htrcam hIi;i,II not h<; ;-;uhJeet to any tnuioit dncH, whatHo- 
iivcr may h<; tlieir origin or d(;.stination. 

There KJi all he (;Ktahli,shed no K(;a or river toll, hawed on tin; Hole 
faet of navigation, nor ;i,ny duty on tin; goodn wlii<'Ji happen to he 
on hoanl the Hhif>H. Only Hueh taxes and dnes nliall he levied an 
arc of tlie nature of a j>ayrnent for Hcrvi<'.eH rendered to tlienaid navi- 
gation. Tlie tariff of thcBctaxcH or du(jH nhall admit of nod)ffon;n- 
tial treiittnent. 

Anrioijo XX VI II. 

Th(} aflluentH of the Niger nliall in <;v(;ry rcHpcf.t he HidjjeeJ, to tlu; 
Bame regulatioriH an the river of whieli they are the trihutaricH,. 

AiniciJ'; XXIX. 

Roads, railwayw or lat(;ral eanaln, wlii(;li nliall he entahlinhed with 
the Hpeeial o})Jeet of ,supplem(;nting tin; innavigahility or other 
imperfeetionKof the waterway, in eJsrtain hccAaohh of the eourne of 
the Niger, itH aflluentH, itn hranelnjH, and itn inHueH, Hliall he eonnid- 
ered,in their eapaeity of meaVm of eomrnunieation, an dependerujieH 
of the river and whall he open Himilarly io the IrafTie of all fiationH. 



130 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

As on the river, there shall be levied on the roads, railways and 
canals, only such tolls as are calculated on the expenses of construc- 
tion, maintainance and administration, and on the profits due to the 
promoters. 

In the assessment of these tolls, foreigners and the inhabitants of 
the respective territories, shall be treated on a footing of perfect 
equality. 

Aeticle XXX. 

Great Britain undertakes to apply the principles of freedom of 
navigation anunciated in Articles XXVI., XXyiI.,XXYIII., XXIX., 
to so much of the waters of the Niger and its affluent branches and 
issues as are or shall be under her sovereignty or protectorate. 

The regulations she will draw up for the safety and control of the 
navigation, shall be designed to facilitate, as much as possible, the 
passage of merchant shipping. 

It is understood that nothing in the engagements thus accepted 
shall be interpreted as hindering or likely to hinder Great Britain 
from making any regulations whatever as to the navigation which 
shall not be contrary to the spirit of such engagements. 

Great Britain undertakes to protect foreign traders of every 
nation engaged in commerce in those parts of the course of the 
Niger, which are or shall be under her sovereignty or protectorate? 
as if they were her own subjects, provided that such traders con- 
form to the regulations which are or shall be established in accord- 
ance with the foregoing. 

Article XXXI. 

France accepts, under the same reservations and identical terms, 
the obligations set forth in the preceding articles, so far as they 
apply to the waters of the Niger, its affluents, its branches and its 
issues, which are or shall be under her sovereignty or protectorate. 

Article XXXII. 

Each of the other Signatory Powers similarly undertake, that 
they will similarly act in such cases as they exercise or may here- 
after exercise, rights of sovereignty or protectorate, in any part of 
the Niger, its afSvient branches or issues. 



CONGO FEEE STATE. 131 

Aeticle XXXIII. 

The provisioTis of the present Act of Navigation shall remain in 
force during times of war. Consequently, the navigation of all 
nations, neutral or belligerant, shall at all times be free for the pur- 
pose of trade on the Niger, its branches, affluents, mouths and 
issues, as well as on the territorial waters fronting the mouths and 
issues of the river. 

The traf&c shall likewise remain free, notwithstanding the state 
of war, on its roads, its railways and canals mentioned in Article 
XXIX. 

The only exception to this principle shall be in cases in connection 
with the transport of articles intended for a belligerent, and held, in 
accordance with the laws of nations, to be contraband of war. 



CHAPTER VI. 

DECLARATIOlSr RELATIVE TO THE ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR NEW 
ANNEXATIONS ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT TO BE CONSIDERED 
EFFECTIVE. 

Article XXXIV. 

The Power, which in future takes possession of a territory on the 
coast of the African Continent, situated outside of its actual posses- 
sions, or which, having none there, has first acquired them, and the 
power which assumes a protectorate, shall accompany either act by 
a notification addressed to the other Powers signatory to the present 
Act, so as to enable them to protest against the same, if there exist 
any grounds for their doing so. 

Article XXXV. 

The Powers signatory to the present Act, recognize the obligation 
to insure in the territories occupied by them on the coasts of the 
African Continent, the existence of an adequate authority to enforce 
respect for acquired rights, and for freedom of trade and transit 
wherever stipulated. 



132 CONGO FEEE STATE. 

CHAPTER VII. 

general provisions. 

Article XXXYI. 

The Powers signatory to tlie present general Act reserve to them- 
selves the right of eventually, by mutual agreement, introducing 
therein modifications or improvements, the utility of which, has 
been shown by experience. 

Article XXXVII. 

The Powers who may not have signed the present Act sball accept 
its provisions by a separate Act. 

The adhesion of each Power shall be notified in the usual diplo- 
matic manner to the Government of the German Empire, and by it 
to those of all the signatory and adherent States. 

The adhesion shall imply the full right of acceptance of all the 
obligations, and admission to all the advantages stipulated for in 
the present general Act. 

Article XXXVIII. 

The present general Act sball be ratified witb as short a delay as 
possible, and in no case shall that delay exceed a year. 

It sball come into force for each Power on the date of its ratifica- 
tion by that Power. 

Meanwhile the Powers signatory to the present Act bind them- 
selves to adopt no measure that shall be contrary to the provisions 
of the said Act. 

Each Power shall send its ratification to the Government of the 
German Empire, which, undertakes to ratify the same to all the sig- 
natory Powers of the present general Act. 

The ratifications of all the Powers shall remain deposited in the 
archives of the Government of the German Empire. When all the 
ratifications shall have been produced, a deed of deposit sball be 
drawn up in a protocol, which shall be signed by the Representa- 
tives of all the Powers that have taken part in the Berlin Con- 
ference, and a certified copy of it shall be sent to each of those 
Powers. 



CONGO FREE STATE. 133 

In consideration of wliich, tlie respective Plenipotentiaries liave 
signed tlie present general Act, and hereto affix their seals. 

Done at Berlin, February 26th, 1885. 

Inasmuch as the Congo Free State starts with the sanction of all 
the leading powers of civilization, it assumes a dignity, at its very 
inception, which attaches to no other African dynasty. It is, or 
ought to be, beyond those jealousies which have torn, and are tear- 
ing, other possessions in Africa to pieces, and retarding their colo- 
nization and development. Further, the terms of its creation ought 
to assure it the united sympathy and combined energy of its patrons 
and founders, and these ought to be invincible within its magnificent 
boundaries for overcoming every obstacle to permanent sovereignty 
and commercial, industrial and moral development. 

But the spirit of comity, which has made a Congo Free State 
possible, might as well have rescued Equatorial Africa, from ocean 
to ocean, from the rapacious grasp of the jealous and contending 
powers of Europe. True, something like a free belt has been recog- 
nized, extending to within a few miles of the Eastern coast, and 
intended to secure an outlet for products w^hich can be more advan- 
tageously marketed in that direction ; yet this is of no avail against 
projects designed to appropriate and control, politically and com- 
mercially, the immense sweep of country between the Congo Free 
State and Indian Ocean ; it is rather an incentive to these powers 
to make haste in their work of appropriation and reduction, and they 
are at it with an earnestness which savors of the days when two 
Americas furnished the flesh for picking, and the bone for angry 
contention. Great Britain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, are in clash' 
about East African areas, protectorates, sovereignties, commercial 
interests, with the likelihood of farther trouble, and such deep com- 
plications as arms only can simplify and relieve. 

Looking but a little into the future, one can catch a glimpse of the 
fate in store for East Africa. It is to be the grand political offset to 
the Congo Free State. This has been resolved upon by Great 
Britain, and its outlines are already mapped in her foreign policy. 
As matters stand, there is nothing to prevent the consummation of 
her designs. She has virtual possession of the Eastern coast from 
Cape Colony to the mouth of the Zambezi. She has Egypt in her 



134 CONGO FREE STATE. 

grasp, wliicli means the Nile vallej from Alexandria to the head 
lakes, Victoria, Albert and Edward Njanza, with their drainage 
systems. 

On the ocean side the power of the Sultan has been already lim- 
ited to Zanzibar and adjacent islands, and it is now like the last 
flicker of a wasted candle. On the Zambezi, and north of it, up the 
Shire to Lake Nyassa, come the claims of Portugal. Portugal is 
weak, and a poor colonizer at that. She can be ousted by diplo- 
macy or sat down upon by force. The German and Italian interests 
will eventually blend Avith those of Great Britain, or shape them- 
selves into well-defined states, pledged to peace and anxious to be 
let alone. 

England is well equipped for this gigantic undertaking. She has 
an extensive South African and Egyptian experience. She has her 
experience in India, which she need but repeat in Africa to realize 
her dreams, or at least achieve more than would be possible with 
any other power. And tlien India is over-populated. It might be 
that thousands, perhaps millions, of her people would swarm to 
African shores, where they would find a climate not unlike their 
own, and resources which they could turn to ready account. At 
any rate, England could enlist in India an army for the occupation 
of East Africa. Her Indian contingent in Egypt answered an excel- 
lent purpose, and redeemed the otherwise fatal campaign toward 
Khartoum. 

The business of establishing an internal economy in this new em- 
pire is easier for Great Britain than any other country. Her prestige 
means as much with native tribes as with the petty sovereignties of 
Europe, or the islands of the Pacific. Her shows of force are impres- 
sive, her methods of discipline effective. In the midst of opposition 
her hand is hard and heavy. A string of fortifications from the 
Zambezi to Cairo, with native garrisons, under control of English 
army officers, would inspire the natives with fear and assure their 
allegiance. The tact of her traders and the perseverance of her mis- 
sionaries would bring about all else that might be necessary to create 
a thrifty and semi- Christian State. 

Our posterity will watch with interest the development of Africa 
through the agency of its Congo Free State on the west, and its 



CONGO FREE STATE. ■ 135 

Imperial State on the east ; tlie one contributing to the giorj of all 
civilized nations, the other to that of a single nation ; the one an 
enlargement of sovereignty, the other a concentration of it. One has 
for its inspiration the genius of freedom, the other the genius of force. 
One is a dedication to civilizing influences, the other is a seizure and 
appropriation in the name of civilization. We can conceive of the 
latter, under the impetus of patronage and of concentrated energy, 
supplemented by arbitrary power, taking the lead for a time, and 
maintaining it till its \'iceroyalties become centers of corruption and 
its subjects helpless peons. But in the end, the former will bound 
to the front, lifted by internal forces, which are free and virile, buoyed 
by a spirit of self-helpfulness and independence, sustained from with- 
oat by universal sympathy and admiration, and from within by 
beings who have voluntarily consented and contributed to their pro- 
gress and enlightenment, and are proud participants in their own 
institutions. 

The historian of a century hence will confirm or deny the above 
observations. If he confirms them, he will add that long experience 
proved the inutility of forcing our governments, usages and peoples 
on those of Africa without modification, and to the utter subordina- 
tion of those which were native; but that, on the contrary, tlie best 
civilizing results were obtained by recognition of native elements, 
their gradual endowment with sovereignty, their elevation to the 
trusts which commerce and industry impose. It is time that our 
boasted civilization should show a conquest which is not based on 
the inferiority, wreck and extermination of the races it meets with 
in its course. It has careered around the globe in temperate belts, 
stopping for nothing that came in its way, justifying everything by 
its superiority. Nature calls a halt in mid- Africa, and practically 
says: "The agents of civilization are already here. Use them, but 
do not abuse. You can substitute no other that will prove either 
permanent or profitable." 







■■■■■''11'! mh 




HENRY M. STANLEY, FROM A LATE PORTRAIT. 



THE 1(E^CUE OF EMI 



IN the fall of 1886, Stanley was summoned from tlie United States 
bj tlie King of Belgium to come and pay Mm a visit. That mon- 
arch seems to have remembered what others had forgotten, that a 
European adventurer and a European project lay buried somewhere 
beneath the Equator and in the very heart of the "Dark Continent." 
Stanley responded to the King's invitation, and out of the interview 
which followed sprang a reason for his late and most memorable 
journey across equatorial Africa. Bat it was deemed wise to 
interest other agencies, and so the British Geographical Society was 
consulted and induced to lend a helping hand. In order to further 
nationalize the projected journey a commission was formed under 
whose auspices it was to take place. This enlisted for the moment 
the sympathies of the German peoples, for the lost one was a Ger- 
man. So grew up what came to be known as the "Emin Bey Relief 
Committee," with head-quarters at London, and with Sir William 
Mackinnon as its secretary. 

And now, who is Emin Bey, or as he appears most frequently, 
Emin Pasha ? What is there about his disappearance in the wilds 
of Africa that makes knowledge of his whereabouts and his rescue 
so desirable? What, of more than humanitarian moment, can 
attach to a journey planned as this one was? These questions are 
momentous, for they involve far more than mere men or mere pro 
jects of rescue. They involve the aims and ambitions of empires, 
the policies of dynasties, the destinies of future African States and 
peoples. That these things are true will appear from the answers 
which history makes to the above queries — a history which is aglow 
with events and attractive in its details, however little it may serve 

(139) 



140 THE RESCUE OF EMIN". 

to reveal of the present plans of those who contribute most to its 
making, Emin Pasha was born in the Austrian province of Silesia, 
and the town of Opplen, in 1840, the same year as Henry M. Stan- 
ley. He studied medicine at Breslau, Kcinigsberg and Berlin, and 
entered upon the world as a regular M. D. with a diploma from the 
Berlin University. Sometime before the Russian-Turkish war he 
went to Constantinople and entered the Turkish army with the title 
of Bey, or Colonel. A taste for travel took him to the East where 
he acquired the oriental languages. On his return we find him 
attached to the Imperial Ministry of Turkey, but only during part 
of the incumbency of Midhat Pasha, who, finding his ministry 
opposed to his ultra hatred of Eussia, dismissed it. 

Up to this time he was known as Dr. Eduard (Edward) Schnitzer, 
that being the name of his parents, with the prefix of Colonel, or 
Bey as an affix. This was all as to outside knowledge of him. On 
his dismissal from the Court at Constantinople he fled to Asia, and 
after many wanderings turned up at Suakim and finally at Khartoum, 
in Africa, where he made the acquaintance of that ill-starred and 
fatalistic English adventurer. General Gordon, then Governor Gen- 
eral of the Soudan, imder English auspices. The General finding 
him an adventurer of attainments made him a storekeeper of his 
army, and upon ascertaining that he was an M.D., promoted him to 
the position of surgeon. In 1877 he was a practitioner of medicine 
at Lado, in southern Soudan. He afterwards became Surgeon- Gen- 
eral of Gordon's staff. In this capacity he served for four years. 
During this time he was engaged in making many valuable scientific 
researches and collections and in contributing interesting papers to 
European learned societies. He was also of great use to Gordon, 
who sent him to Uganda and Unyoro on diplomatic missions. 

In 1878, when General Gordon was made Governor-General of the 
Soudan by the British Government, he raised Col. Schnitzer to the 
rank of Governor of the province of Hat el Seva in Southern Sou- 
dan. By this time the Mahdi had risen in the Soudan, and was con- 
fronting Gordon with his Mohammedan followers. To identify 
himself more fully with the Mohammedan people among which he 
had to live. Col. Schnitzer abandoned his German name and took 
the Arabic one of Emin (the faithful one) and the full title of Pasha 




EMIN PASHA IN HIS TENT, 



1-12 THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 

(General or Governor). The scheme on the part of Gordon was to 
seize and hold the equatorial provinces of the Soudan, in the rear 
of the Mahdi's forces, and thus introduce a military menace as well 
as make a political and moral diversion in favor of the cause he 
represented. Gordon gave him part of his own army, augmented 
by a large native force, and with this Emin Pasha took possession 
of his provinces far toward the Equator, and abutting on the central 
lake system of the continent. 

For a time all went well Avith him. He proved a most indefati- 
gable traveler, and showed special fitness to govern. He was 
familiar with the language of the Turks, Arabs, Germans, French 
and Italians, and acquired readily the dialects of the heathen tribes. 
On every side he displayed suavit}'', tact and genius. In 1879, he 
made an excursion to the western shore land of the Mwutan, which 
till then had not been visited by white men. In 1880 he visited 
Makralla-land, and planted many trading stations, thus enlarging 
his territory geographically and politically. In this expedition he 
located many important rivers, chief of which was the Kibali. In 
1881 he pushed his explorations westward into the land of the 
powerful Niam Niams, and southward into the lands of the Mon- 
buttus, which tribes are types of the best physical and political 
strength in that part of Africa, west of the Nile sources. 

Thus Emin kept on increasing the extent and importance of his 
territory, and it came to be recognized as the best governed of any 
in the vast undefined domain of the Soudan. He found it infested 
with Arab slave- dealers, who practiced all the barbarities of their 
kind, and much of his time was occupied in suppressing the nefari- 
ous traflEic. He became the recognized foe of those who penetrated 
his domains to barter in human flesh, or if cupidity dictated, to burn, 
pillage and kill, in order that they might freight their dhwos with 
trophies of their cruelty. 

Though undefined east and west, his kingdom came to recognize 
Lado as its northern capital, and Wadelai, on Lake Albert Nyanza, 
as its southern. The work of organizing his territory extended 
from 1878 to 1882. He had practically driven out the slave-traders 
and converted a deficient revenue into a surplus for his government, 
conducting everything on the basis laid down by his superior. Gen- 



144 THE EESCUE OF EMIN. 

eral Gordon, and carrying out with the most marked success the 
plans of that noble enthusiast. He was fast making his territory 
semi-civilized when the Mahdi arose, led his hosts northward, mas- 
sacred the army of Gordon, and finally made himself master of Khar- 
toum and a great part of the Soudan. This was in 1882. The 
Egyptian garrisons throughout the Southern Soudan were then 
abandoned to their fate, and the last attempt to save Khartoum 
ended with the death of General Gordon. 

During the years of bloodshed that followed, Emin remained at 
his post, his provinces entirely cut off from the world, and he him- 
self neglected and left entirely to his own resources. He held at the 
time about four thousand native and Egyptian troops under his 
command. He was completely surrounded by hostile tribes, but it 
is generally admitted that if he had chosen to leave behind him the 
thousands of helpless women and children and abandon the province 
to the merciless cruelties of the slave traders, he could easily have 
effected his escape either to the Congo or to the Zanzibar coast. 
But he determined to stay and to keep the equatorial provinces for 
civilization, if possible. 

The great work done by this brave and indefatigable German 
cannot be told here in detail. But he organized auxiliary forces of 
native soldiers; he was constantly engaged in warfare with sur- 
rounding tribes; he garrisoned a dozen river stations lying long dis- 
tances apart. His ammunition ran low and he lacked the money 
needed for pajdng his small army ; but in the face of manifold diffi- 
culties and dangers he maintained his position, governed the country 
well, and taught the natives how to raise cotton, rice, indigo and 
coffee, and also how to weave cloth and to make shoes, candles, soap 
and many articles of commerce. He vaccinated the natives by the 
thousand in order to stamp out small- pox ; he opened the first hos- 
pital known in that quarter ; he established a regular post-route, with 
forty offices; he made important geographical discoveries in the 
basin of the Albert Nyanza Lake, and in many ways demonstrated 
his capacity for governing barbarous races by the methods and 
standards of European civilization. 

Murder, war and slavery were made things of the past, so that at 
last "the whole country became so safe that only for the wild beasts 



THE RESCUE OP EMIIST. 145 

in tlie thickets, a man could have gone from one end of the province 
to the other, armed with nothing more than a walking-sticlv." " A 
German writer said of him at the time : " In his capital, Lado, where 
Dr. Schnitzer earlier resided, he arose everj day before the sun. 
His first work was to visit the hospitals and care for the health of 
the people and the troops. After a day devoted to executive labors, 
a great part of the night would be spent in writing those essays on 
anthropology, ethnology, geography, botany, and the languages of 
the people dwelling in his province which have made his name 
famous as a scientific explorer." 

In 1885 Emin had ten fortified stations along the Upper Nile, the 
most northern one being Lado, and the most southern one Wadelai. 
The latter place he made his ca^Dital for some time. His command 
at Wadelai then co.isisted of 1500 soldiers, ten Egyptians and fifteen 
negro officers. The rest were at the various stations on the Nile. 
He had ammunition to hold out until the end of 1886, and longer, 
he wrote, "if the wild tribes did not make the . discovery that he 
would be then entirely out of it." In 1887 he wrote: "I am still 
holding out, and will not forsake my people." After that, letters 
were received from him in which he described his position as hope- 
ful. In one of the last of these letters he wrote : 

"The work that Gordon paid for with his blood I will strive to 
carry on according to his intentions and his spirit. For twelve long 
years I have striven and toiled and sown the seeds for future har- 
vests, laid the foundation stones for future buildings. Shall I now 
give up the work because a way may soon open to the coast? 
Never ! " 

The successes of the Malidi had isolated him entirely on the 
north. To the west and south were powerful tribes which, though 
not unfriendly, could offer him no avenue of escape. To the east 
were still more powerful peoples, once friendly but now imbued with 
the Mahdi's hatred of white men and their commercial and political 
objects. Chief of these were the Uganda, whose King, Mtesa, had 
died in 1884, and had been succeeded by his son Mwanga, a thorough 
Mahdist and bitter against European innovation. Emin was there- 
fore a prisoner. This was known in Europe in 1886, but how critical 
his situation was, no one could tell. It was natural to regard it as 



146 THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 

perilous, and it was hoped that the Egyptian Government would 
take measures for his relief. The Cairo Grovernment did nothing 
except to give him the title of Pasha and to offer £10,000 to anj 
expedition that might be sent to him. Many rehef expeditions 
were then planned, but nothing came of them till the one at whose 
head Stanley was placed took shape. 

Where should such an expedition go ? What should it do ? It 
did not take long for the "wizard of equatorial travel" to decide. 
Here might be opened a whole volume of controversy as to whether 
Stanley's mission in search of Emin was really humanitarian or not. 
The Germans who had the greatest interest in the safety of their 
fellow countryman, refused to look on the expedition as other than 
a scheme to rid the Southern Soudan of a Teutonic ruler in the 
interest of England. They regarded Emin as abundantly able to 
take care of himself for an indefinite time, and the event of his 
withdrawal as amounting to a confession that Germanic sovereignty 
was at an end in the lake regions of Central Africa. It cannot be 
ascertained now that Stanley entered upon the expedition for the 
relief of Emin Pasha in other than a humanitarian spirit, though he 
was backed by English capital. It is fair to presume that since he 
was invited to the ordeal by the Belgian King, whose exchequer 
was responsible for the greater part of the outlay, he went with 
perfectly disinterested motives. But be that as it may, he felt the 
delicacy of his task and, after having discovered the lost one, his 
interviews with him are models of diplomatic modesty and patience. 

On being placed in charge of the expedition by its projectors, 
Stanley naturally chose the Congo route into the heart of Africa, 
because he was familiar with it by his recent efforts to found the 
Congo Free State, and because it would give him a chance to review 
and refresh his labors in that behalf. If all things were as he had 
left them, he knew that a water-way traversable by steam was open 
for him to a point on the Congo opposite the habitation of Emin 
and distant biit a few hundred miles. So May 11, 1887, found Stan- 
ley on the west coast of Africa ready to start inland. He did not 
collect his force and equipments at the mouth of the Congo, but 
made his way around the cataracts to Stanley Pool. There, at the 
station called Kinchassa everything was gathered for the up-river 



THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 147 

journey. Thence, tlie expedition embarked in three steamers, Le 
Stanley, the large stern- wheeler belonging to the Congo Free State, 
towing the Florida which had just been put together by sections. 
Le Stanley and Florida had on board about 300 men, mostly trained 
and armed natives, among whom were four English officers and sev- 
eral scientific gentlemen,'' besides a cargo of ammunition, merchan- 
dise and pack animals. The next steamer was the Henry Reid, a 
launch belonging to the American Baptist Missionary Union, and 
kindly loaned to Stanley for the purpose of transporting part of his 
force and equipments from Stanley Pool to his proposed camp on 
the Aruwimi. The other steamer was the Peace, placed at Stan- 
ley's disposal by the Rev. Holman Bentley, of the English Baptist 
Missionary Society, and of which a, young missionary named 
Whitely had charge. 

On their passage up the Congo, and after a sail of ten days a 
camp was formed at Bolobo, and left in charge of Captain Ward, 
who was deemed a proper person for the command on account of 
his previous knowledge of the natives, always inclined to be more 
or less hostile at that point. Captain Ward had met Stanley below 
Stanley Pool and while he was performing his tedious journey 
around the cataracts. He thus describes the expedition on its 
march at the time of the meeting. 

In the front of Stanley's line was a tall Soudanese warrior bearing 
the Gordon Bennett yacht flag. Behind the soldier, and astride a 
magnificent mule, came the great explorer. Following immediately 
in his rear were his personal servants, Somalis, with their braided 
waistcoats and white robes. Then came Zanzibaris with their 
blankets, water-bottles, ammunition-belts and guns; stalwart 
Soudanese soldiery, with great hooded coats, their rifles on their 
backs, and innumerable straps and leather belts around their bodies ; 
Wagawali porters, bearing boxes of ammunition, to which were 
fastened axes, shovels and hose lines, as well as their little bundles 
of clothing, which were invariably rolled up in old threadbare 
blankets. At one point the whale-boat was being carried in sections, 
suspended from poles, which were each borne by four men. Donkeys 
laden with sacks of rice were next met, and a little further back 
were the women of Tippoo Tib's harem, their faces concealed and 



THE EESCUE OF EMIK. 149 

their bodies draped in gaudily-colored clothes. Here and there was 
an English officer. A flock of goats next came along, and then the 
form of Tippoo Tib came into view as he strutted majestically 
along in his flowing Arab robes and large turban, carrying over his 
right shoulder a jewel-hilted sword, the emblem of office from the 
Sultan of Zanzibar. Behind him followed several Arab sheiks, 
whose bearing was quiet and dignified. 

It was not the intention to hurry over the long stretch of water 
between Stanley Pool and the Aruwimi, but to make the trip by 
easy stages. Yet it was a trip involving great labor, for there being 
no coal, and the steamers being small, the work of wood-cutting had 
to be done every night. The launches required as much wood for 
twelve hours steaming as thirty or forty men, laboring at night, 
could cut with their axes and cross-cut saws. In some portions of 
the upper Congo where the shores are swampy for miles in width, 
the men were often compelled to wade these long distances before 
striking the rising forest land, and of course they had to carry the 
wood back to the steamers over the same tedious and dangerous 
routes. 

As has been stated, Stanley's objective was the mouth of the 
large river Aruwimi, which enters the Congo, a short distance below 
Stanley Falls, in Lat. 1° IST., and whose general westward direction 
led him to think that by following it he would get within easy 
marches of Lake Albert Nyanza and thus into Emin's dominions. 

On the arrival of the expedition at the mouth of the Aruwimi, an 
armed camp was formed at Yambungi and left in charge of the 
unfortunate Major Barttelot, and here a conference was awaited 
with the dual-hearted Arab, Tippoo Tib, whom Stanley had recog- 
nized as ruler at Nyangwe, on the Congo, above Stanley Falls, 
and who was bound to him by the most solemn treaties. The 
wily chieftain came up in due time, and the interview was such as 
to engender serious doubts of his further friendship, notwithstanding 
his protestations. 

The occasion was a palaver, at the request of Major Barttelot, 
with a view to obtain some definite understanding as to the provid- 
ing of the Manyema porters whom Tippoo Tib had promised 
Stanley he would supply in order that the rearguard might follow 



THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 151 

him up from the Aruwimi Eiver to "Wadelai. How the porters 
did not come up to time ; how the commander of the rearguard was 
hampered with new conditions as to weight when the men did 
appear; and how the dreadful business ended in the assassination 
of Major Barttelot and tlie breaking up of the camp, will appear 
further on. The death of Mr. Jameson soon afterwards, at Ward's 
Camp, on the Congo, a distressing sequel to the former tragedy, was 
in somber tone with the reports of Stanley's death whicli came 
filtering through the darkness at about thS same time. The cloud 
wbich fell upon the Aruwimi camp seemed to spread its dark 
mantle over the entire expedition. Mr. Werner, in his interesting 
volume "A Visit to Stanley's Eear Guard," gives a characteristic 
sketch of the Arab chief; and Mr. Werner was the engineer in 
charge of the vessel whicb. took Major Barttelot part of the way 
on his last journey to the Falls. "After the light complexion of 
the other Arabs," he says, " I was somewhat surprised to find Mr. 
Tippoo Tib as black as any negro I had seen ; but he had a fine 
well-sbaped head, bald at the top, and a short, black, thick beard 
thickly strewn with white hairs. He was dressed in the usual Arab 
style, but more simply than the rest of the Arab chiefs, and had a 
broad, well-formed figure. His restless eyes gave him a great 
resemblance to the negro's head with blinking eyes in the electric 
advertisements of somebody's shoe polish which adorned the walls 
of railway- stations some years ago — and earned him the nickname 
of ' Nubian blacking.' " 

In June, 1887, Stanley started on his ascent of the unknown Aru- 
wimi, and through a country filled mth natives prejudiced against 
him by the Arab traders and friends of the Mahdi. His force now 
comprised 5 white men and 380 armed natives. His journey proved 
tedious and perilous in the extreme, and though he persevered in 
the midst of obstacles for two months, he was still 400 miles from 
Albert Nyanza. It was now found that the river route was imprac- 
ticable for the heavier boats. At this point their troubles thick- 
ened. The natives proved hostile, and ingenious in their means 
of opposing obstructions to the further progress of the expedition. 
They refused to contribute provisions, and starvation stared the 
travelers in the face, For weeks their only food was wild fruit 



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^'^^-f*^ 



r T-* ':*s. 






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THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 153 

and nuts. To forage was to invite death, and to engage in open 
war was to court annihilation. Disease broke out, and it must have 
swept them all away but for the precautions which Stanley took to 
head off its ravages. As it was, the number was greatly reduced, 
and the men were weak, emaciated, in a state of panic, amid sur- 
rounding dangers and without spirit for further trials. Writing of 
this critical period, his letters say : 

"What can you make of this, for instance? On August 17, 1887, 
all the officers of the rear column are united at Yambuya. They 
have my letter of instructions before them, but instead of preparing 
for the morrow's march, to follow our track, they decide to wait at 
Yambuya, which decision initiates the most awful season any com- 
munity of men, ever endured in Africa or elsewhere. 

"The results are that three-quarters of their force die of slow 
poison. Their commander is murdered and the second ofl&cer dies 
soon after of sickness and grief. Another officer is wasted to a 
skeleton and obliged to return home. A fourth is sent to wander 
aimlessly up and down the Congo, and the survivor is found in such 
a fearful pest-hole that we dare not describe its horrors. 

"On the same date, 150 miles away, the officer of the day 
leads 333 men of the advance column into the bush, loses the 
path and all consciousness of his whereabouts, and every step he 
takes only leads him further astray. His people become frantic ; 
his white companions, vexed and irritated by the sense of the evil 
around them, cannot devise any expedient to relieve him. They 
are surrounded by cannibals and poison tipped arrows thin their 
numbers. 

"Meantime I, in command of the river column, am anxiously 
searching up and down the river in four different directions ; through 
forests my scouts are seeking for them, but not until the sixth day 
was I successful in finding them." 

Having now brought his different marching columns closer 
together, and loaded his sick in light canoes, he started on, inter- 
cepted continually by wild native raiders who inflicted considerable 
loss on his best men, who had to bear the brunt of fighting as well 
as the fatigue of paddling. Soon progress by the river became too 
tedious and difficult, and orders were given to cast off the canoes. 



154 THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 

The land course now lay along the north bank of the Itura, amid 
dense forests, and through the despoiled lands which had been a 
stamping ground for Ugarrowa and Kilingalango raiders. No grass 
land, with visions of beef, mutton and vegetables, were within a 
hundred miles of the dismal scene. 

For two weeks the expedition threaded the unknown tangle, look- 
ing out for ambuscades, warding off" attacks, and braving dangers of 
every description. At length the region of the Dwaris was reached 
and a plantain patch bursts into view. The hungry wayfarers 
plunged into it and regaled themselves with the roasted fruit, while 
the more thougbtfal provided a store of plantain flour for the 
dreaded wilderness ahead. Another plunge was made into the 
trackless forest and ten daj^s elapsed before another plantation was 
reached, during which time tbe small-pox broke out, with greater 
loss of life than any other enemy hiad as yet inflicted. Meanwhile 
they had passed the mouth of the Ihura, a large tributary of the 
Itura, and were on the banks of the Tshuru. As there was no 
possibility of crossing this turbulent tributary, its right bank was 
followed for four days till the principal village of the Andikuma 
tribe was reached. It was surrounded by the finest plantation of 
bananas and plantains, which all the Manyemas' habit of spoliation 
and destruction had been unable to destroy. There the travelers, 
after severe starvation during fourteen days, gorged themselves to 
such excess that it contributed greatly to lessen their numbers. 
Every twentieth, individual suffered from some complaint whicb 
entirely incapacitated him for duty. 

From Andikuma, a six days' march northerly brought them 
to a flourishing settlement, called Indeman. Here Stanley was 
utterly nonplussed by the confusion of river names. The natives 
were dwarfs. After capturing some of them and forcing answers, 
he found that they were on the right branch of the Ihuru river 
and that it could be bridged. Throwing a bridge across, they 
passed into a region wholly inhabited by dwarfs wlio proved 
very hostile. They are the Wambutti people, and such were 
their number and ferocity that Stanlej^ was forced to change his 
north-east into a south-east course and to follow the lead of ele- 
phant tracks. 



THE EESCUE OF EMIN. 155 

They had now to pass tlirough. tlie most terrible of all their 
African experiences. Writing further of this trying ordeal, Stanley 
says: 

"On the fifth day, having distributed all the stock of flour in 
camp, and having killed the only goat we possessed, I was com- 
pelled to open the of&cers' provision boxes and take a pound pot of 
butter, with two cupfuls of my flour, to make an imitation gruel, 
there being nothing else save tea, coffee, sugar, and a pot of sage in 
the boxes. In the afternoon a boy died, and the condition of the 
majority of the rest was most disheartening. Some could not 
stand, falling down in the effort to do so. These constant sights 
acted on my nerves until I began to feel not only moral but physi- 
cal sympathy, as though the weakness was contagious. Before 
liight a Madi carrier died. The last of our Somalis gave signs of 
collapse, and the few Soudanese with us were scarcely able to move. 
When the morning of the sixth day dawned, we made broth with 
the usual pot of butter, an abundance of water, a pot of condensed 
milk, and a cupful of flour for 130 people. The chiefs and Bonny 
were callen to a council. At my suggesting a reverse to the foragers 
of such a nature as to exclude our men from returning with news of 
the disaster, they were altogether unable to comprehend such a pos- 
sibility. They believed it possible that these 150 men were search- 
ing for food, without which they would not return. They were 
then asked to consider the supposition that they were five days 
searching food, and they had lost the road, perhaps, or, having no 
white leader, had scattered to shoot goats, and had entirely forgotten 
their starving friends and brothers in the camp. What would be 
the state of the 130 people five days hence ? Bonny offered to stay 
with ten men in the camp if I provided ten days' food. for each per- 
son, while I would set out to search for the missing men. Food to 
make a light cupful of gruel for ten men for ten days was not diffi- 
cult to procure, but the sick and feeble remaining must starve 
unless I met with good fortune ; and accordingly a stone of butter- 
milk, flour, and biscuits were prepared and handed over to the 
charge of Bonny. In the afternoon of the seventh day we mustered 
everybody, besides the garrison of the camp, ten men. Sadi, a 
Manyema chief, surrendered fourteen of his men to their doom. 



THE EESCUE OF EMIN. 157 

Kibboboras, another chief, abandoned his brother; and Fundi, 
another Manyema chief, left one of his wives and her little boy. Wo 
left twenty-six feeble and sick wretches already past all hope unless 
food could be brought them within twenty-four hours. In a cheery 
tone, though my heart was never heavier, I told the forty-three 
hunger-bitten people that I was going back to hunt for the missing 
men. We traveled nine miles that afternoon, having passed several 
dead people on the road, and early on the eighth day of their 
absence from camp we met them marching in an easy fashion, but 
when we were met the pace was altered, so that "-n twenty-six hours 
from leaving Starvation Camp we were back with a cheery abun- 
dance around us of gruel and porridge, boiling bananas, boiling 
plantains, roasting meat, and simmering soup. This had been my 
nearest approach to absolute starvation in all my African expe- 
rience. Altogether twenty-one persons succumbed in this dreadful 
camp." 

After twelve days journey the party on November 12tli, reached 
Ibwiri. The Arab devastation, which had reached within a few 
miles of Ibwiri, was so thorough that not a native hut was left 
standing between Urgarrava and Ibwiri. What the Arabs did not 
destroy the elephants destroyed, turning the whole region into a 
horrible wilderness. 

Stanley continues : — " Our sufferings terminated at Ibwiri. We 
were beyond the reach of destroyers. We were on virgin soil, in a 
populous region, abounding with food. We, ourselves, were mere 
skeletons — reduced in number from 289 to but little more than half 
that number. Hitherto our people were skeptical of what we told 
them. The suffering had been so awful, the calamities so numer- 
ous, and the forests so endless, that they refused to believe that by 
and by Ave would see plains and cattle, the JSTyanza, and Emin Pasha. 
They had turned a deaf ear to our prayers and entreaties for, driven 
by hunger and suffering, they sold their rifles and equipments for 
ears of Indian corn, deserted with their ammunition and became 
generally demoralized. Perceiving that mild punisliment would be 
of no avail, I resorted to the death penalty, and two of the worst 
cases were hanged in the presence of all. We halted 13 days at 
Ibwiri, revelling on fowls, goats, bananas, corn, yams, etc. The 




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I* 



#^-^. "-^ --I/,- <; *v^ Aji: #*y 



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THE HESCtfE OF EMIK. 



159 



supplies were inexhaustible and_ our people glutted themselves with 
such effect that our force increased to 173 sleek robust men — one 
had been killed with an arrow. 

On ISTovember 24th the expedition started for Albert Nyanza, 126 
miles distant. Given food, the distance seemed nothing. On Decem- 




AFEICAN WARRIOES. 



ber 1st an open country was sighted from the top of a ridge which 
was named Mt. Pisgah. On the 5th the plains were reached and the 
.deadly, gloomy forest left behind. The light of day now beamed 
all around, after 160 days of travel. They thought they had never 



160 THE RESCUE OF EMIN". 

seen grass so green or a country so lovely. The men could not con- 
tain themselves but leaped and yelled for joy, and even raced over 
tlie ground with their heavy burdens. 

On Nov. 9, 1887, Stanley says, " We entered the country of the 
powerful Chief Mazamboni. The villages were scattered so thickly 
that no road except through them could be found. The natives 
sighted us, but we were prepared. We seized a hill as soon as we 
arrived in the center of a mass of villages, and built a zareba as fast as 
billhooks could cut the brushwood. The war cries were terrible 
from hill to hill, pealing across the intervening valleys. The people 
gathered in hundreds at every point, war horns and drums announc- 
ing the struggle. After a slight skirmish, ending in our capture of 
a cow, the first beef we had tasted since we left the ocean, the night 
passed peacefully, both sides preparing for the morrow. 

"Here Mr. Stanley narrates how negotiations with natives failed, 
Mazamboni declining a peace offering, and how a detachment of 40 
persons, led by Lieutenant Stairs, and another of 30, under command 
of Mr. Jephson, with sharpshooters, left the zareba and assaulted and 
carried the villages, driving the natives into a general rout. The 
march was resumed on the 12th and here were constant little fights. 

" On the afternoon of the 13th," says Mr. Stanley, " we sighted the 
Nyanza, with Kavalli, the objective point of the expedition. Six 
miles ofi" I had told the men to prepare to see the ISTyanza. They 
murmured and doubted, sajdng, ' Why does the master continually 
talk this way ? Nyanza indeed.' When they saw the Nyanza 
below them, many came to kiss my hands. We were now at an 
altitude of 5,200 feet above the sea, with the Albert Nyanza 2,900 
feet below, in one degree twenty minutes. The south end of the 
Nyanza lay largely mapped for about six miles south of this posi- 
tion and right across to the eastern shore. Every dent in its low, 
flat shore Avas visible, and traced like a silver snake on the dark 
ground was the tributary Lanilki, flowing into the Albert Nyanza 
from the south-west. 

"After a short halt to enjoy the prospect, we commenced the rug- 
ged and stony descent. Before the rear guard had descended 100 
feet the natives from the plateau poured after them, keeping the 
rear guard busy until within a few hundred feet of the Nyanza plaiu 



THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 161 

We camped at the foot of the plateau wall, the aneroids reading 2,500 
feet above the sea level. A night attack was made, but the sentries 
sufficed to drive our assailants off". 

" We afterwards approached the village of Kakongo, situated at 
the south-west corner of Albert Lake. Three hours were spent by us 
in attempting to make friends, but we signally failed. They would 
not allow us to go to the lake, because we might frighten their cat- 
tle. They would not exchange the blood of brotherhood, because 
they never heard of any good people coming from the west side of 
the lake. They would not accept any present from us, because thev 
did not know who we were ; but they would give us water to drink, 
and would show us the road up to Nyam-Sassi. From these singu- 
lar people we learned that they had heard that there was a white 
man at Unyoro, but they had never heard of any white men being 
on the west side, nor had they ever seen any steamers on the lake. 
There was no excuse for quarrelling. The people were civil 
enough, but they did not want us near them. We therefore were 
shown the path and followed it for miles. We camped about half a 
mile from the lake, and then began to consider our position with 
the light thrown upon it by conversation with the Kakongo 
natives." 

But now he was in more of a quandary than ever. The lake was 
before him, but no sign of Emin nor any of his oflEicials. Could he 
have failed to hear of Stanley's sacrifices in his behalf? The fam- 
ished expedition looked in vain on that expanse of water for evi- 
dence of friendly flag or welcome steamer. It had left all its own 
boats behind, a distance of 190 miles, and was therefore helpless 
for further search. This should not be, and so with his accustomed 
heroism, Stanley resolved on a return march to Kilinga for 'boats. 
It was a hard, quick journey, occupying weeks, for the distance was 
great. 

Writing of his fatigue and disappointment on his arrival at Lake 
Albert Nyanza, Stanley says : 

"My comriers from Zanzibar had evidently not arrived, or Emin 
Pasha, with his two steamers, would have paid the south-west side 
of the lake a visit to prepare the natives for our coming. My boat 
was at Kilingalonga, 190 miles distant, and there was no canoo 



THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 16o 

obtainable. To seize a canoe witliout the excuse of a quarrel, my 
conscience would not permit. There was no tree anywhere of a size 
sufficient to make canoes. Wadelai was a terrible distance off" for an 
expedition so reduced. "We had used five cases of cartridges in five 
days fighting on the plain. 

"A month of such fighting must exhaust our stock. There was 
no plan suggested that was feasible, except to retreat to Ibwiri, build 
a fort, send the party back to Kalingalonga for a boat, store up every 
load in the fort not convey able, leave a garrison in the fort to hold 
it, march back to Albert Lake, and send a boat in search of Emin 
Pasha. This was the plan which, after lengthy discussions with the 
officers, I resolved upon." 

The most pathetic part of this eventful history is the fact 
that Emin had really received Stanley's messages, had been surprised 
at his coming to rescue him, and had made an effort to meet him 
on some likely point on the lake, but having failed had returned 
to his southern capital, Wadelai, on the Nile outlet of the lake. 

During the time so spent by the expedition the outside world was 
filled with rumors of the death of Stanley, either by disease or at 
the hands of the natives. These reports would always be followed 
by some favorable report from the expedition, not authentic, but 
enough to give hope that the hardy explorers were safe and con- 
tinuing their way across the continent. Occasionally, too, during 
the first part of the trip, couriers would arrive at the coast from 
Stanley announcing progress, but, as they advanced, no further com- 
munications were received, and the expedition was swallowed up in 
the jungles and vast forests of Central Africa. 

Putting his plans for a return into execution, Stanley had to fi2,iit 
his way from the shores of the lake to the top of the plateau, for 
the Kakongo natives were determined he should not pass back the 
way he had come. Pie was victorious with a Ldss of one man killed 
and one wounded. The plateau gained, he plunged westward by 
forced marches, and by January 7, 1888, was back at Ibwiri. After 
a few days rest there, he dispatched Lieut. Stairs with 100 men 
to Kilinga to bring up the boats. On his return with the boats, he 
was sent to Ugarrowas to bring up the convalescents. Stanley now 
fell sick and only recovered after a month of careful nursing. 



164 



THE RESCUE OF EMIN". 



It was now April 2d, and he again started for the lake, accom- 
panied by Jephson and Parke, Nelson being left in command at the 
post, now Fort Bodo, with a garrison of 43 men. On April 26, 
he was again in Mazamboni's country, who, after much solicitation 
was induced to make blood brotherhcod with Stanley. Strange to 
.say every other chief as far as the lake followed his example, and 
every difficulty was removed. Food Avas supplied in abundance and 
gratis, and the gracious natives, expert in the art of hut building, 
prepared in advance the necessary shelter for night. 




BEGINNING- A HUT. 

When within a day's march of the lake, natives came up from 
Kavalli saying that a white man had given their chief a note done 
up in a black packet and that they would lead Stanley to him if he 
would follow. He replied, " he would not only follow but make 
them rich," for he did not doubt that the white man was Emin 
Pasha. The next day's march brought them to Chief Kavalli, 
who handed Stanley a note from Emin Pasha done up in black 
American oil cloth. It was to the effect that as there had been a 
native rumor that a white man had been seen at the south end of 



4'HE iRfiSCTJE OF EMIN. 



165 



tlie lake, he (Emin) had gone thither in a steamer but had been 
unable to obtain reliable information. The note further begged 
Stanley to remain where he was till Emin could communicate with 
him. 

The next day, April 23d, Stanley sent' Jephson with a strong 
force to take the boat of the expedition to Lake Nyanza. On the 
26tli the boat crew sited Mawa Station, the south ermost station in 
Emin's boundaries. There Jephson was hospitably received by the 
Egyptian garrison. On April 29th, Stanley and his party again 
reached the bivouac ground on the plateau overlooking the lake, 
where they had encamped before, and at 5 P. M., they sighted the 




THE SECOND STAGE. 

Khedive steamer, seven miles away on the lake, steaming up 
towards them. By 7 P. M., the steamer arrived opposite the camp, 
and shortly afterwards, Emin Pasha, Signor Carati and Jephson 
came to Stanley's head-quarters where they were heartily welcomed. 
The next day Stanley moved his camp to a better place, three 
miles above ISTyamsassi, and Emin also moved his camp thither. 
The two leaders were together, in frequent consultation, till May 
25th. The Pasha was smTounded by two battalions of regulars, 
besides a respectable force of irregulars, sailors, artisans, clerks and 
servants. How different, in many respects, was the situation 
from what Stanley expected 1 



166 



THE SESCtE OF E]tfC?. 



He found Emin Paslia in tlie midst of plenty and unwilling to be 
rescued. He found Ms o\sti forces jaded with, travel, on the eve of 
starvation, and anxious to be rescued. He found, moreover, a prince 
in his o-R-n equatorial empire, who looked "vx'ith jealous eves on the 
rehef expedition. In one of his (Emin's) letters dated April 17, 
1888, he declared that he had no intention to give up his work in 
Africa and had determined to await Stanley's coming at Wadelai. 
In another letter he expressed himself very decidedly to the effect 
that he did not wish his province to come under English suzeraintv. 
He was evidently of the opinion that the British Government in 
sending out Stanley had its eyes on his province ^dth a view to 
eventually incorporating it with the Soudan, should the Anglo- 




HUT C0:MPLETED IX AX HOUR. 

Egyptians succeed in re-establishing authority at Khartoum. The 
same idea gradually forced itself to acceptance in Europe, and. as 
we know, the German Govermnent later became no less anxious to 
get into communication Tsdth Emin in the hope of preventing him 
from making any arrangement T\ith England. 

It was not therefore such a meeting as took place years before between 
Stanley and Livingstone, at Ujiji on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, 

Long inter^-iews followed w^hich. did not impress Stanley with 
the fact that his expedition was to be a success, so far as getting 
Emin out of the country was conceraed. "Altogether,"' said Emin, 



THE RESCUE OF EMI:N". 167 

''if I consent to go aAray from liere we shall have 8000 people mth 
us." His principal desire seemed to be that Stanley should relieve 
him of about 100 of his Egyptian soldiers, "with their women and 
children. He said he was extremely doubtful of the loyalty of the 
first and second battahons. It was this interview which Stanley 
announced to the world of ci^dlization by way of the Congo route. 
The situation .was most delicate. He could not urge upon the ruler 
of an empire to flee from his dominions, he could not even ask one who 
seemed to be in the midst of peace and plenty, to desert them for 
the hardships of a long journey to the coast. He could only impress 
on him in a modest way the objects of the expedition and the pro- 
priety of his taking advantage of its presence to effect an escape 
from dangers which were thickening every hour, and which must 
ere long take shape in a descent upon him by the ever increasing 
hordes of the Mahdi. 

These representations were of no avail and Stanley left him 
on May 2oth, leaving mth him Jephson and five of his carriers. In 
return Emin gave Stanley 105 of his regular Mahdi native porters. 
In fourteen days Stanley was back at Fort Bodo, where he found 
Captain Xelson and Lieut. Stairs. The latter had come up from 
IJgarrowas, twenty-two days after Stanley had set out for the lake, 
bringing along, alas! only 16 out of 56 men. All the rest had per- 
ished on the journey. Stairs brought along the news that Stanley's 
20 couriers, by whom he had sent word to Barttelot at Yambuna, 
had passed Ugarrowas on their way to their destination, on March 
16th. Fort Bodo was in excellent condition on Stanley's arrival, and 
enough ground had been placed under cultivation to insure a suffi- 
cient amount of corn for food. 

On June 16th he left Fort Bodo mth 111 Zanzibaris and 101 of 
Emin's Soudanese, for Kilonga, where he arrived on June 21:th. 
Pushing on, he arrived at Ugarrowas on July 19th. While this 
backward journey was performed rapidly and ^\athout serious hin- 
drance, it was to end in sorrow. Ugarrowas was found deserted, its 
occupants having gathered as much ivory as they could, and passed 
down the river in company Avith Stanlej-'s couriers. Stanlej' made 
haste to follow, and on August 10th came up ^^dth the Ugarrowa 
people in a flotilla of 57 canoes. His couriers, npw reduced to 17 in 



168 THE RESCUE OF EMIN". 

number, related awful stories of liair-breadtli escapes and tragic 
scenes. Besides the tliree wliicTi liad been slain, two were down with 
wounds, and all bore scars of arrow wounds. 

A week later they were all down to Bunaljla, where Stanley met 
his friend, Dr. Bonney, at the stockade, and inquired for Major 
Barttelot, who, it will be recollected, was left in charge of Stanley's 
rear guard at Yambuna, with orders to secure food and carriers from 
Tippoo Tib. Stanley asked : 

"Well, my dear Bonney where's the Major? " 

"He is dead, sir; shot by a Manyuema, about a month ago," 
replied Bonney. 

" Good God," I cried, "and Jamieson!" 

"He has gone to Stanley Falls to try to get more men from 
Tippoo Tib." 

"And Troup?" 

" Troup has gone home invalided." 

"Well, were is Ward?" 

"Ward is at Bangala." 

"Heaven alive! Then you are the only one here?" 

"Yes, sir." 

Without loss of further time, Stanley hastened down to Yambuna, 
only to find the sad story too, too, true. Barttelot and his entire 
caravan had been destroyed, and the officers left in charge of the 
station had fled panic stricken down the river with all the supplies 
of the station. Stanley complained greatly of this desertion, yet 
proceeded to do the best he could to re-provision the fort and recu- 
perate his men. He remained long enough to study the situation, 
and it was sad in the extreme as it gradually unfolded in his mind. 
His governor of Stanley Falls and the Congo beyond, the Arab 
Tippoo Tib, was evidently working in the interest of the Mahdi, in 
violation of his oath and most solemn covenants. Though proof of 
his open hostility was wanting, Stanley strongly suspected him of 
conspiring to bring about the massacre of Barttelot's caravan, in 
July, 1888, with a view of preventing his (Stanley's) return to the 
Albert Nyanza. Evidence of a wide spread conspiracy to rid the 
entire equatoral section of its European occupants was also found in 
the fact that the destruction of Barttelot's caravan ante-dated but a 



172 . THE RESCUE OF EMlN, 

be a mere walk-over. Everj' one is anxiously looking for your arrival, for the coining of tlio 
Mahdists has completely cowed them. We roay just manage to get out if you do not come 
later than the end of December, but it is entirely impossible to foresee what will happen." 

Jephson in a second postscript, dated December 18tli, says : 

" Mogo, the messenger, not having started, I send a second postscript. We were not at Tun- 
guru on November 25th. The Mahdists surrounded Duffle Station and besieged it for four days. 
The soldiers, of whom there were about 510, managed to repulse them, and they retired to 
Regaf, their headquarters, as they have sent down to Khartoum for reinforcements, and doubt- 
less will attack again when strengthened . In our flight from Wadelai the officers requested me 
to destroy our boats and the advances. I therefore broke it up. Duffle is being renovated as 
fast as possible. The Pasha is unable to move hand or foot, as there is still a very strong 
party against him, and his officers no longer in immediate fear of the Mahdi. Do not on any 
account come down to us at my former camp on the lake near Kavalli Island, but make your 
camp at Kavalli, on the plateau above. Send a letter directly you arrive there, andas soon as 
we hear of your arrival I will come to you. Will not disguise facts fi"om you that you will 
have a difficult and dangerous ^vork before you in dealing with the Pasha's people. I trust 
j'ou will arrive before the Mahdists are reinforced, or our case will be desperate. 

Yours faithfully, (Signed) Jephson." 

Imagine the effect of such word as this on one who stood almost 
alone in the midst of a continent, wdthout power to face the disci- 
plined forces of the Mahdi, and with no open line of retreat. The 
best he could do for the moment was write an assuring letter and 
dispatch it to the Nyanza as quickly as possible, pushing on after it 
to Kavalli. 

With Stanley, to resolve was to act. He accordingly sent word 
to Jephson that he need have no anxiety on his (Stanley's) account 
for he was in the midst of natives who were not only friendly but 
ready to fight for him ; that on his arrival at Kavalli he would be 
in a condition to rescue Emin and his attendants ; and that every 
inducement must be brought to bear on him to come southward on 
the lake with his command, if not still held prisoners. 

On Stanley's arrival at Kavalli, he again wrote, imder date of 
January 18th, 1889. And this letter, together with those which 
followed, reveals a situation quite as embarrassing as the former one 
had been, for still Emin seemed to be unaware of his danger, 
Stanley's letter read : 

"Kavalli, January 18, 3 o'clock p. m. — My dear Jephson: I now 
send thirty rifles and three Kavalli men down to the lake with ' my 
letters with my urgent instructions that a canoe should be sent off 
and the bearers be rewarded. I may be able to stay longer than six 
days here, perhaps ten days. I will do my best to prolong my stay 
until you arrive without rupturing the peace. 



THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 173 

Our people liave a good store of beads and couriers cloth, and I 
notice that the natives trade very readily, which will assist Kavalli's 
resom^ces should he get uneasy under our prolonged visit. Should 
we get out of this trouble I am his most devoted' servant and friend 
but if he hesitates again I shall be plunged in wonder and perplexity. 
I could save a dozen Pashas if they were willing to be saved. I 
would go on my knees and implore the Pasha to be sensible of his 
own case. He is wise enough in all things else, even for his own 
interests. Be kind and good to him for his many virtues, but do 
not you be drawn into the fatal fascination the Soudan territory 
seems to have for all Europeans in late years. As they touch its 
ground they seem to be drawn into a whirlpool which sucks them in 
and covers them with its waves. The only way to avoid it is to 
blindl}^, devotedly, and unquestioningly obey* all orders from the out- 
side. The Committee said : 

"Pelieve Emin with this ammunition. If he wishes to come out 
the ammunition will enable to do so. If he elects to stay it will be of 
service to him. The Khedive said the same thing and added that 
if the Pasha and his officers wished to stay, they could do so on their 
own responsibility. Sir Evelin Baring said the same thing in clear, 
decided words, and here I am after 4,100 miles travel with the last 
instalment of relief. Let him who is authorized to take it, take it 
and come. I am ready to lend him all my strength and will assist 
him, but this time there must be no hesitation, but positive yea or 
nay, and home we go. Yours sincerely, Stanley." 

In the course of his correspondence Mr. Stanley says: "On Feb- 
ruary 6th Jephson arrived in the afternoon at our camp at Kavalli. 
I was startled to hear Jephson, in plain, undoubting words, say : 
'Sentiment is the Pasha's worst enemy. No one keeps Emin back 
but Emin himself.' This is the summary of what Jephson learned 
during the nine months from May 25th, 1888, to February 6th, 1889. 
I gathered sufficient from Jephson's verbal report to conclude that 
during nine months neither the Pasha, Casati, nor any man in the 
province had arrived nearer any other conclusion than what was 
told us ten months before. However, the diversion in our favor 
created by the Mahdists' invasion and the dreadful slaughter they 
made of all they met inspired us with hope that we could get a defi- 



172 THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 

be a mere walk-over. Everj' one is anxiously looking for j-our arrival, for the coming of tho 
Mahdists has completely cowed them. We may just manage to get out if you do not come 
later than the end of December, but it is entirely impossible to foresee what will happen." 

Jeplison in a second postscript, dated December 18tli, says : 

" Mogo, the messenger, not having started, I send a second postscript. We were not at Tun- 
guru on November 25th. The Mahdists surrounded Duffle Station and besieged it for four days. 
The soldiers, of whom there were about SW, managed to repulse them, and they retired to 
Kegaf, their headquarters, as they have sent down to Khartoum for reinforcements, and doubt- 
less will attack again when strengthened . In our flight from "Wadelai the officers requested me 
to destroy our boats and the advances . I therefore broke it up. Duffle is being renovated as 
fast as possible. The Pasha is unable to move hand or foot, as there is still a very strong 
party against him, and his officers no longer in immediate fear of the Mahdi. Do not on any 
account come down to us at my former camp on the lake near Kavalli Island, but make your 
camp at Kavalli, on the plateau above. Send a letter directly you arrive there, andas soon as 
we hear of your arrival I will come to you. Will not disguise facts fi'om you that you will 
have a difficult and dangerous work before you in dealing with the Pasha's people. I trust 
you will arrive before the Mahdists are reinforced, or our case will be desperate. 

Yours faithfully, (Signed) Jephsox." 

Imagine the effect of such word as this on one who stood almost 
alone in the midst of a continent, without power to face the disci- 
plined forces of the Mahdi, and ^\ith no open line of retreat. The 
best he could do for the moment was write an assuring letter and 
dispatch it to the Nyanza as quickly as possible, pushing on after it 
to Kavalli. 

"With Stanley, to resolve was to act. He accordingly sent word 
to Jephson that he need have no anxiety on his (Stanlej^'s) account 
for he was in the midst of natives who were not only friendly but 
ready to fight for him ; that on his arrival at Kavalli he would be 
in a condition to rescue Emin and his attendants ; and that every 
inducement must be brought to bear on him to come southward on 
the lake with his command, if not still held prisoners. 

On Stanley's arrival at Kavalli, he again wrote, under date of 
January 18th, 1889. And this letter, together with those which 
followed, reveals a situation quite as embarrassing as the former one 
had been, for still Emin seemed to be unaware of his danger. 
Stanley's letter read : 

"Kavalli, January 18, 3 o'clock p. M. — My dear Jephson: I now 
send thirty rifles and three Kavalli men down to the lake with ' my 
letters with my urgent instructions that a canoe should be sent off 
and the bearers be rewarded. I may be able to stay longer than six 
days here, perhaps ten days. I will do my best to prolong my stay 
until you arrive without rupturing the peace. 



THE RESCUE OF EMIK. 173 

Our people liave a good store of beads and couriers' cloth, and I 
notice that the natives trade very readily, which will assist Kavalli's 
resoui'ces should he get uneasy under our prolonged visit. Should 
we get out of this trouble I am his most devoted' servant and friend 
but if he hesitates again I shall be plunged in wonder and perplexity. 
I could save a dozen Pashas if they were willing to be saved. I 
would go on my knees and implore the Pasha to be sensible of his 
own case. He is wise enough in all things else, even for his own 
interests. Be kind and good to him for his many virtues, but do 
not you be drawn into the fatal fascination the Soudan territorj- 
seems to have for all Europeans in late years. As they touch its 
ground they seem to be drawn into a whirlpool which sucks them in 
and covers them with its waves. The only way to avoid it is to 
blindly, devotedl}^, and unquestioningly obey all orders from the out- 
side. The Committee said : 

"Believe Emin with this ammunition. If he wishes to come out 
the ammunition will enable to do so. If he elects to stay it will be of 
service to him. The Khedive said the same thing and added that 
if the Pasha and his officers wished to stay, they could do so on their 
own responsibility. Sir Evelin Baring said the same thing in clear, 
decided words, and here I am after 4,100 miles travel with the last 
instalment of relief. Let him who is authorized to take it, take it 
and come. I am ready to lend him all my strength and will assist 
him, but this time there must be no hesitation, but positive yea or 
nay, and home we go. Yours sincerely, Stanley." 

In the course of his correspondence Mr. Stanley says: "On Feb- 
ruary 6th Jephson arrived in the afternoon at our camp at Kavalli. 
I was startled to hear Jephson, in plain, undoubting words, say : 
'Sentiment is the Pasha's worst enemy. No one keeps Emin back 
but Emin himself.' This is the summary of what Jephson learned 
during the nine months from May 25th, 1888, to February 6th, 1889. 
I gathered sufficient from Jephson's verbal report to conclude that 
during nine months neither the Pasha, Casati, nor any man in the 
province had arrived nearer any other conclusion than what was 
told us ten months before. However, the diversion in our favor 
created by the Mahdists' invasion and the dreadful slaughter they 
made of all they met inspired us with hope that we could get a defi- 



174 THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 

nite answer at last. Thougli Jephson could only reply: 'I really 
can't tell you wliat ttie Paslia means to do. He says lie mshes to 
go away, but \vill not move. It is impossible to say what any man 
will do. Perhaps another advance by the Mahdists will send them 
all pell-mell towards you, to be again irresolute and requiring sev- 
eral weeks' rest.' " 

Stanley next describes how he had already sent orders to mass 
the whole of his forces ready for contingencies. He also speaks of 
the suggestions he made to Emin as to the best means of joining 
him, insisting upon something definite, otherwise it would be his 
(Stanley's) duty to destroy the ammunition and march homeward. 

It seems that Stanley's letters were beginning to have weight with 
Emin, and that he was coming to think it cruel to subject his fol- 
lowers to further danger, whatever opinion he entertained of his own 
safety. So on the morning of February 13th, 1889, Stanley was 
rejoiced to receive in his camp on the plateau above Kavalli, at the 
hands of a native courier, a letter from Emin Pasha himself, which 
announced his arrival at Kavalli. But let the letter speak for 
itself: 

" Sir : In answer to your letter of the 7th inst., I have the honor 
to inform you that yesterday I arrived here with my two steamers, 
carr3ang a first lot of people desirous to leave this country under 
your escort. As soon as I have arranged for a cover for my people, 
the steamers have to start for Mswa Station to bring on another lot 
of people. Awaiting transport with me are some twelve oflEicers, 
anxious to see you, and only forty soldiers. They have come under 
my orders to request you. to give them some time to bring their 
brothers from Wadelai, and I promised them to do my best to assist 
them. Things having to some extent now changed, you will be 
able to make them undergo whatever conditions you see fit to 
impose upon them. To arrange these I shall start from, here with 
oflEicers for your camp, after having provided for the camp, and if 
3^ou send carriers I could avail me of some of them. I hope sin- 
cerely that the great difficulties you liad to undergo and the great 
sacrifices made by your expedition on its way to assist us may be 
rewarded by full success in bringing out my people. The wave of 
insanity which overran the country has subsided, and of such people 



THE RESCUE OF EMIIST. 175 

as are now coming with me we may be sure. Permit me to express 
once more my cordial thanks for whatever you have done for us. 

Yours, Emin." 

Thus the two heroes of African adventure came together on the 
west shore of the lake which marked the southern boundary of Emin 
Pasha's influence. It was a trying meeting for both. Stanley was 
firm in his views and true to the objects of his mission. Emin was 
still divided between his desire to save all of his followers who were 
willing to go, and his sense of obligation to those who chose to 
remain behind. In a modified form his convictions, expressed in 
April, 1887, still held. He then said : 

" The work that Gordon paid for with his blood I will strive to 
carry on, if not with his energy and genius, still according to his 
intentions and in his spirit. When my lamented chief placed the 
government of this country in my hands, he wrote to me : ' I appoint 
you for civilization and progress sake.' I have done my best to 
justify the trust he had in me, and that I have to some extent been 
successful and have won the confidence of the natives is proved by 
the fact that I and my handful of people have held our own up to 
the present day in the midst of hundreds of thousands of natives. I 
remain here as the last and only representative of Gordon's staff. It 
therefore falls to me, and is my bounden duty, to follow up the road 
he showed us. Sooner or later a bright future must dawn for these 
countries ; sooner or later these people "v\dll be draAvn into the circle 
of the ever advancing civihzed world. For twelve long years have 
I striven and toiled, and sown the seeds for future harvest — ^laid the 
foundation stones for future buildings. Shall I now give up the 
work because a way may soon open to the coast ? never ! " 

As if anticipating the end, Stanley had already begun to call in 
the detachments of his expedition. On February 18th Lieut. Stairs 
arrived at Kavalli with his strong column from the remote Ituri. 
Meanwhile negotiations were going on daily with Emin. The force 
he had brought up the lake consisted of himself, Sehm Bey, seven 
other officers, and sixty-five people. Sehm Bey became the spokes- 
man for both Stanley and Emin. He had just achieved a victory 
over the Madhi's forces by recapturing Duffle, killing 250 of the 
enemy and lifting the restraints from Emin, himself. At length, on 



l76 THE RESCUE OF EMIIST. 

February IStli, tlie date of the arrival of Lieut. Sairs, Selim, at the 
head of a deputation, announced to Stanley a request on the part of 
Emin that he (Stanley) allow all the equatorial troops and their 
families to assemble at Kavalli. 

In reply Stanley explained fully the object of his expedition, and 
offered to remain at Kavalli for a reasonable time in order to give 
Emin's forces an opportunity to join him. Selim and his deputation 
retired satisfied, saying they would proceed at once to Wadelai and 
begin the work of transportation. They started on February 26th. 
On the 27th, Emin returned to Kavalli with his little daughter, 
Ferida, and a caravan of li-i men. He and Stanley agreed that 
twenty days would be a reasonable time in which to gather all the 
people and movables at Kavalli. These twenty days were neces- 
sary to Stanley's comfort, too, for much sickness had prevailed 
among his forces, and now, under the ministrations of Surgeon 
Parke, his active force had been raised from 200 to 280 men. 

The refugees from Wadelai soon began to pour into Kavalli. 
They were a mixture of soldiers, their ^vives and children, loaded 
with promiscuous camp effects, most of which was practically rub- 
bish, entailing great labor in handling, and nearly all of which 
would have to be abandoned on the subsequent march. Stanley 
saw the result of all this accumulation and on March 16th issued 
orders to stop bringing the stuff to his camp. But 1355 loads had 
already arrived, enough to embarrass the march of ten times such a 
force as was then in camp. At this time Stanley was gratified by a 
report from Selim announcing that the rebellious soldiers and officers 
at Wadelai, and all of the people there, were anxious to depart for 
Egypt under his escort. But while this was true of Wadelai, it was 
not true of Kavalli, for Stanley discovered a conspiracy among the . 
promiscuous gathering there, which took the shape of a concerted 
attempt on the part of Emin's Egyptian soldiers to steal the arms 
of Stanley's Zanzibaris, and stir up general mutiny. -Knowing that 
while Emin had been praised for personal bravery and at the same 
time condemned for laxity of discipline, and seeing that such a state 
of affairs would be fatal, both in getting a start and in prosecuting 
a long march, Stanley decided on immediate and resolute action. 
Forming his own men, armed with rifles, into a square on the pla* 



THE KESCUE OF EMIN. 177 

teau, he ordered all of the Pasha's people into it. Those who refused 
to go, he arrested and forced in, or had them placed in irons and 
flogged. Thej were then questioned as to their knowledge of the 
conspiracy, but all denied having had anything to do mth it. Then 
all who desired to accompany Stanley were asked by Emin to stand 
aside. They were told that the condition upon which they could 
go was that of perfect obedience to Stanley's orders as their leader, 
and that extermination would speedily follow the discovery of any 
further tricks. They promised a most religious obedience. This 
muster revealed the fact that Emin's followers numbered 600 peo- 
ple, necessitating the enlistment of 350 new carriers. The entire 
number now ready for the march was 1500 persons. 

But on May 7th, Stanley received an intercepted letter from Selim 
Bey which stated that the rebels at Wadelai had changed their mind, 
risen in mutiny, and robbed the loyal forces of all their ammunition. 
They also asked with the greatest effrontery that Stanley be called 
before them and qiiestioned as to his future objects before they con- 
sented to go with him. The letter in addition contained hints of a 
plot to attack and capture his expedition in case he started with- 
out giving them satisfaction. Instantly Stanley assembled all the 
ofl&cers in his camp and asked them if they felt he would be justified 
in remaining there after April 10th. They all replied in the negative. 
Going to Emin, he said, " There Pasha, you have your answer, 
"We march on the 10th." Emin asked whether they could acquit 
him in their consciences for abandoning his people, alluding to those 
who had not yet arrived from Wadelai. Stanley replied that they 
could most certainly do so, as to all who had not arrived by the 10th. 
All of Stanley's accounts of this part of his expedition bear evidence 
of trouble with Emin. He still trusted the rebellious soldiers, even 
those who had agreed to leave for Egypt. He mistrusted Stanley's 
ability to reach Zanzibar with so numerous a caravan, on account of 
a lack of food. He had left many valuable servants behind, whom 
he desired to take along, but he said, " They are unwilling to accom- 
pany me." This opened Stanley's eyes. He says, " It now became 
clear that the Pasha had lost his authority at Wadelai, however 
obstinately he clung to his belief in his forces there." 



178 THE RESCUE OF EMIN. 

May lOtli came and Stanley started with liis immense expedition 
for the sea, his objective being Zanzibar, on the west coast of Africa. 
He had promised Emin to march slowly for a few days in order to 
give Selim, with such servants and stragglers as he might bring 
along, an opportunity to overtake them, but he never saw them 
more. To pursue a route eastward from Albert Nyanza was imprac- 
ticable, for the powerful Unyoro and Uganda tribes lay in that 
direction. These and other tribes had been infected with the Mahdi 
spirit, and would therefore prove hostile. He therefore chose a 
route in a southerly direction, till the extreme southern waters of 
Victoria Nyanza had been rounded, when he would be on the 
natural lines running from Zanzibar into the interior. Be.?ides, this 
would bring him through nearly 400 miles of practically undiscovered 
country. 

Zanzibar, the objective point of the journey, is on an island of the 
same name, twenty miles from the east coast of Africa, and in 
latitude 6° South. It is a Mohammedan town of 30,000 people, 
with many good houses and mosques. Though the soil is excellent 
and prolific of fruits and vegetables, the town depends for its pros- 
perity on trade and commerce. When the slave trade was driven 
from the Atlantic coast of Africa, it found its way to the eastern, or 
Pacific coast, and flourished in a manner never before known. 
Zanzibar, always notorious as a slave depot, became the recognized 
headquarters of the horrid traflic, and rapidly rose to a position of 
great wealth and influence. Her slave market attracted the notice 
and excited the disgust and indignation of strangers of every creed 
and country. Nothing could be more revolting than sight of the 
Arabic purchasers of slaves examining the build, the eyes, the teeth, 
and all the physical qualities of the victims offered for sale in the 
marts. Tens of thousands of slaves were known to pass through 
Zanzibar annually on their way to various parts of Egypt and 
Turkey. On the appearance of British cruisers on the coast, with 
orders to capture and condemn all slave dhows, the Sultan of 
Turkey prohibited the trafl&c at Zanzibar. But this only diverted 
its course. The next step was to induce the Sultan to issue a 
general proclamation, prohibiting the trade in all places on the 
coast, under his authority. This was done in 1876, The result has 



180 THE RESCUE OF EMIIT. 

been a considerable diminution of the infamous trafBic, wbicb caR 
now onlj be carried on by a system of smuggling, which, incurs 
much risk. Zanzibar is the most important starting point for 
travelers and missionaries destined for Central Africa, and is a depot 
for such supplies as may be needed from time to time. 

From every point of view his route was well chosen. Skirting 
the Unyoro country, he fell under their displeasure and became 
the victim of a fierce attack, which he parried successfully. This 
opened his way for a considerable distance along the ranges of 
mountains which pass under the general name of the Baleggas 
These mountains rise to the immense height of 18,000 to 19,000 
feet, and their summits are capped with snow. The huts of the 
natives were visible on their sides at altitudes of 8,000 feet. 
During their nineteen marches along the base of these ranges, 
their severest obstacle was the Semliki river, a bold stream, 100 
3'-ards wide, whose crossing was rendered doubly difficult by the 
"Warasmas natives. They formed an ambuscade, from which they 
delivered a single volley at the travelers, but fortunately it proved 
ineffective. It did not take much of a demonstration to put them 
to flight. 

After a march of 113 days the southern waters of Victoria 
Nyanza were reached. From this point Stanley sent letters to th© 
coast stating that his objective was now Mpwapwa, 230 miles inland, 
whither provisions should be sent. This was done, and an armed 
escort was furnished him by German officials thence to the coast, 
at Bagamoyo, opposite Zanzibar, where the exipedition arrived about 
December 1, 1889. Thence steamer was taken to Zanzibar, where 
the hero of the expedition, together with Emin Pasha, and all the 
officials, were received with open arms, fetes and acclamations. 
Telegrams of congratulations poured in from crowned heads, and 
all parts of the world. A sample from Queen Victoria types them 
all. London, December 12th: 

"My thoughts are after you and your brave followers, whose 
hardships and dangers are at an end. I again congratulate you all, 
including the Zanzibaris, who displayed such devotion and fortitude 
during your marvelous expedition. I trust Emin Pasha is making 
favorable progress." 



THE RESCUE OF EMIK. 181 

One drawback to all these exultations at Zanzibar was tbe fact 
that Emin Pasha, after escaping all the tribulations of the wilder- 
ness, had fallen from the piazza of his hotel at Bagamoyo, on 
December 5th, and received injuries of an alarming nature. The 
sad announcement of this clouded the occasion somewhat, and gave 
a tone of melancholy to what would have been unmixed gratulation. 

In reply to a cablegram from the Emperor of Germany, Stanley 
said, December 7th: 

"Imperator et rex. My expedition has now reached its end. I 
have had the honor to be hospitably entertained by Major Weismann 
and other of your Majesty's officers under him. Since arriving from 
Mpwapwa our travels have come to a successful conclusion. We 
have been taken across from Bagamoyo to Zanzibar by your Majes- 
ty's ships Sperber and Schwalbe, and all honors coupled with great 
affability, have been accorded us. I gratefully remember the hos- 
pitality aqd princely affability extended to me at Potsdam ; and 
profoundly impressed with your Majesty's condescension, kindness 
and gracious welcome. With a full and sincere heart I exclaim, 
long live the noble Emperor William." 

And writing for the general public, he says : 

"Over and above the happy ending of our appointed duties, we 
have not been unfortunate in geographical discoveries. The Aru- 
wimi is now known from its source to its bourne. The great Congo 
forest, covering as large an area as France and the Iberian Peninsula, 
we can now certify to be an absolute fact. The Mountains of the 
Moon this time, beyond the least doubt, have been located, and 
Ruwenzori, 'The Cloud King,' robed in eternal snow, has been seen 
and its flanks explored, and some of its shoulders ascended. Mounts 
Gordon Bennett and Mackinnon cones being but giant sentries ward- 
ing off the approach to the inner area of ' The Cloud King.' 

"On the south-east of the range the connection between Albert 
Edward Nyanza arid the Albert Nyanza has been discovered, and 
the extent of the former lake is now known for the first time. 
Range after range of mountains has been traversed, separated by such 
tracts of pasture land as would make your cowboys out West mad 
with envy. 



182 THE EESCUE OF EMU^. 

"And right under the burning Equator we have fed on blackber- 
ries and bilberries, and quenched our thirst with crystal water fresh 
from snow beds. We have also been able to add nearly six thousand 
square miles of water to Yictoria Nyanza. 

"This has certainly been the most extraordinary expedition I 
have ever led into Africa. A veritable divinity seems to have 
hedged us while we journeyed. I say it with all reverence. It has 
impelled us whither it would, effected its own will, but nevertheless 
guided and protected us. 

"I gave as much good will to my duties as the strictest honor 
would compel. My faith that the purity of my motive deserved 
success was firm, but I have been conscious that the issues of every 
effort were in other hands. 

"Not one officer who was with me will forget the miseries he has 
endured, yet everyone that started from his home destined to march 
with the advance column and share its wonderful adventures is here 
to-day, safe, sound and well. 

"This is not due to me. Lieutenant Stairs was pierced with a 
poisoned arrow like others, but others died and he lives. The 
poisoned tip came out from under his heart eighteen months after 
he was pierced. Jephson was four months a prisoner, with guards 
with loaded rifles around him. That they did not murder him is not 
due to me. 

"These officers have had to wade through as many as seventeen 
streams and broad expanses of mud and swamp in a day. They 
have endured a sun that scorched whatever it touched. A multitude 
of impediments have ruffled their tempers and harassed their hours. 

"They have been maddened with the agonies of fierce fevers. 
They have lived for months in an atmosphere that medical author- 
ity declared to be deadly. They have faced dangers every day, 
and their diet has been all through what legal serfs would have 
declared to be infamous and abominable, and yet they live. 
. "This is not due to me any more than the courage with which 
they have borne all that was imposed upon them by their surround- 
ings or the cheery energy which they bestowed to their work or the 
hopeful voices which rang in the ears of a deafening multitude of 
blacks and urged the poor souls on to their goal. 



. ¥HE EESCTJEi OF EMlJf. 183 

"The vulgar w'.ll call it luck. Unbelievers will call it chance, 
but deep down in each heart remains the feeling, that of verity, 
there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of 
in common philosophy. 

"I must be brief. Numbers of scenes crowd the memory. 

" Could one but sum them into a picture it would have grand 
interest. The uncomplaining heroism of our dark followers, the 
brave manhood latent in such uncouth disguise, the tenderness we 
have seen issuing from nameless entities, the great love animating 
the ignoble, the sacrifice made by the unfortunate for one more 
unfortunate, the reverence we have noted in barbarians, who, even 
as ourselves, were inspired with nobleness and incentives to duty — 
of all these we would speak if we could, but I must end with, thanks 
be to God forever and ever ! 

This letter is characteristic of Stanle3^ The hardships of his 
journey will fade from memory, but its successes will become his- 
toric. He has made the "Dark Continent" dark no longer. To him 
and his undaunted comrades the world owes a debt of gratitude it 
will be difficult to repay. The vast tracts of hitherto unknown 
wilderness through which he traveled will stimulate the enterprise 
of the pioneer, and the day is not far distant — within the lifetime 
of our children's children, perhajDS — when the shrill echo of the 
engine's whistle will be heard on the rugged sides of snow capped 
mountains which Stanley has explored ; when those illimitable for- 
ests will resound with the woodman's axe, and when the law of 
commerce will change the tawny native from a savage into a self- 
respecting citizen". Barbarism will retire from its last stronghold on 
the planet, as the darkness disappears when the sun rises over the 
hilltops. 

The dire distresses of his long journej^, begun two and a-half 
years ago, are beyond the reach of language. He merely hints at 
some of them and leaves the rest to the imagination. We ponder 
his pathetic references to the sturdy loyalty of companions and fol- 
lowers, "maddened with the agonies of fierce fevers," falling into 
their graves through the subtle poison with which the natives tip- 
ped their arrows and spears, bravely fighting their way through 
interminable swamps only to succumb at last, and the conviction 



l84 _ THE KESCtJE OF EMIN, 

steals over us that sucli a storj lias never been told before and may 
never be told again. He rescued Emin and his comrades, who were 
"in daily expectation of their doom," then turned his face southward, 
made various and important explorations on his way, and at last 
came within speaking distance of the millions who followed him 
from the hour lie entered the mouth of the Congo with a solicitude 
which no other man of our time has commanded. 

It would not do to close any account of Stanley's brilliant career 
without noting the fact that Emin Pasha, in one of his last pub- 
lished letters, written after he was beyond all danger from Mahdi 
vengeance and African climate, fully acknowledges the value of the 
aid sent him, and makes it clear that his hesitation at availing him- 
self of it was due to that high sense of duty which had gained him 
the name of Emin, or the Faithful One. The last and most trusted 
of Gordon's lieutenant's, he regarded it as his "bounden duty" 
to follow up the road the General showed him ; and it must 
have been a wrench to tear himself away from the life-work 
to which he had in a measure consecrated himself — to see the labors 
of years thrown away, and all his endeavors come to naught. But 
it could not be helped under the circumstances, and Emin, like many 
before him, has had to succumb to the force of fate. And so ends 
for the present the attempt to civilize the equatorial Provinces of 
Egypt. The ruler of Egypt has formally renounced them, Gordon 
is dead, and his trusted lieutenant has at last thrown up the sponge. 
It has been a strange and eventful story, in which the heroes have 
been of the race which has done so much for the regeneration of 
the dark places of the world. For a time the dark and turbid 
waves of ignorance, of slavery, and of cruelty will roll back over 
this part of the Dark Continent and pessimists will say that nothing- 
more can be done. But it is only for a time. The day will surely 
come when the dreams of Gordon and of Emin will become actual 
realities; and when that time comes we may be sure that the name 
of Henry M. Stanley will be remembered and honored. 



EEIYPT m THE Ml. 



T 



HE historic approacli to " The Dark Continent" is bj way of 
storied Egypt and its wonderful river, the Nile, In making 
this approach we must not forget the modern commercial 




LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY AT UJIJI. 

value of the route fromx Zanzibar, pursued by Stanley (1871-72) 
while hastening to the rescue of Dr. Livingstone, the great English 
explorer, nor of that other, by way of the Congo, which bids fair to 
prove more direct and profitable than any thus far opened. 

(185) 



IS6 Egypt and fSE miM. 

It was an enterprise as bold as any of tliose undertaken by 
hardy mariners to rescue tlieir brother sailors who had met 
shipwreck while striving to unfold the icy mysteries which sur- 
round the North Pole. And, unlike many of these, it was suc- 
cessful. The two great explorers shook hands in October 1871, 
at Ujiji, on the banks of Lake Tanganyika, in the very heart 
of the great forest and river system of Africa, and amid dark 
skinned, but not unkind, strangers, who constitute a native peo- 
ple as peculiar in all respects as their natural surroundings. 

We mention this because it was a great achievement in the 
name of humanity. Livingstone had started on this, his last, 
exploring tour in 1866, and had been practically lost in African 
wilds for nearly four years. But it was a greater achievement 
in the name of science and civilization, for it not only proved 
that " The Dark Continent " was more easily traversable than 
had been supposed, but it may be set down as the beginning of 
a new era in African exploration. 

In all ages Africa has been a wonderland to the outside world. 
As the land of Cush, in Bible story, it was a mystery. It had 
no bounds, but was the unknown country oft" to the south of 
the world where dim legend had fixed the dark races to work out 
a destiny under the curse laid upon the unfortunate Ham. 

Even after Egypt took somewhat definite meaning and shape 
in Hebrew geography as "The Land of Mizriam," or the "Land 
of Ham," all else in Africa was known vaguely as Ethiopia, 
marvellous in extent, filled with a people whose color supported 
the Hamitic tradition, wonderful in animal, vegetable and min- 
eral resources. Thence came Sheba's queen to see the splendors 
of Solomon's court, and thence emanated the long line of Candaces 
who rivalled Cleopatra in wealth and beauty and far surpassed 
her in moral and patriotic traits of character. 

In olden times the gateway to Africa Avas Egypt and the 
Nile. As an empire, history furnishes nothing so curious as 
Egypt; as a river nothing so interesting as her Nile. We may 
give to the civilization of China and India whatever date we 
please, yet that of Egypt will prove as old. And then what a 
difierence in tracing it. That of China and India rests, with a 



EGYP1? ANt) TllE NlLfi. 1§7 

few exceptions, on traditions or on broken crockery tablets and 
confused shreds of ruins. Ttiat of Egypt has a distinct tracery 
in monuments wbicli liave defied the years, each one of which is a 
book full of grand old stories. We can read to-day, by the light 
of huge pillar and queer hieroglyphic, back to Menes, the first 
Egyptian King, and to Abydos, the oldest Egyptian city, and 
though the period be 4500 years before Christ, scarcely a doubt 
arises about a leading fact. There was wealth then, art, civilization, 
empire, and one is ever tempted to ascribe to Egypt the mother- 
hood of that civilization which the Hebrew, Indian, Etruscan, 
Persian, Eoman, Greek and Christian, carved into other shapes. 

Says the learned Dr. Henry Brugsch-Bey, who has spent 
thirty years among Egyptian monuments and who has mastered 
their inscriptions, " Literature, the arts, and the ideas of morality 
and religion, so far as we know, had their birth in the Nile val- 
ley. The alphabet, if it was constructed in Phenicia, was con- 
ceived in Egypt, or developed from Egyptian characters. Lan- 
guage, doubtless, is as old as man, but the visible symbols oi 
speech were first formulated from the hieroglyphic figures. The 
early architecture of the Greeks, the Doric, is a development of 
the Egyptian. Their vases, ewers, jewelry and other ornaments, 
are copies from the household luxury of the Pharaohs." 

The influence of Egypt on the Hebrew race has a profound 
interest for the whole Christian world. Let the time of Abra- 
ham be fixed at 1900 B. C. The Great Pyramid of Egypt, 
built by the first Pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, had then been 
standing for 1500 years. Egypt had a school of architecture and 
sculpture,' a recorded literature, religious ceremonies, mathematics, 
astronomy, music, agriculture, scientific irrigation, the arts of 
war, ships, commerce, workers in gold, ivory, gems and glass, 
the appliances of luxury, the insignia of pride, the forms of 
government, the indices of law and justice, 2000 years before 
the " Father of the Faithful " was born, and longer still before the 
fierce Semitic tribes of the desert gave .forth their Hebrew 
branch, and placed it in the track of authentic history. 

In the Bible we read of the " God of Abraham, and of Isaac, 
and of Jacob." In the prayer of King Khunaten, dating long 



1$S EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

before any biblical writing, we find a clear recognition of one 
God, and a reaching out of the soul after him, embraced in a lan- 
guage without parallel for beauty of expression and grandeur of 
thought. Ages before the giving of the law on Sinai and the 
establishment of the Hebrew ceremonical worship, the "Book of 
the Dead," with its high moral precepts, was in the possession 
of every educated Egyptian. 

The Jev/s went out of Egypt with a pure Semitic blood, .but 
with a modified Semitic language. They carried with them in 
the person of their great leader, Moses, " all the wisdom of the 
Egyptians." This is shown by their architecture, religious cus- 
toms, vestments, persistent kindred traditions. Both Moses and 
Jesus were of the race whose early lessons were received with 
stripes from Egyptian masters. The hieroglyphical writings of 
Egypt contained the possibilities of Genesis, the Iliad, the Psalms, 
the .^neid, the Inferno, and Paradise Lost. In the thought that 
planned the Hall of Columns upon the Nile, or sculptured the 
rock temple of Ammon, was involved the conception of Solo- 
mon's Temple, the Parthenon, St. Peters, Westminster Abbey 
and every sacred fane of Europe and America. 

Therefore, travel and exploration in this wonderful land, the 
remote but undoubted source of letters, morals, sciences and 
arts, are always interesting. Thebes, Memphis, Zoan-Tanis, 
Pitom, Tini, Philse, Bubastis, Abydos, are but as fragments of 
mighty monuments, yet each discloses a story abounding in 
rich realities and more striking; in its historic varieties than 
ever mortal man composed. But for the powerful people that 
made the Nile valley glow with empire, but for the tasteful 
people that made it beautiful with cities and monuments, but 
for the cultured people that wrote on stone and papyrus, Avere 
given to costly t^eremonies, and who dreamed of the one God, 
the Israelites would have recrossed the Isthmus of Suez, or the 
Red Sea, without those germs of civilization, without those 
notions of Jehovah, which made them peculiar among their 
desert brethren, and saved them from absorbtion by the hardy 
tribes of Arabia and Syria. 

In going from Europe across the Mediterranean to Egypt, you 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



189 



may think you can sail directly into one of the mouths of the 
Nile, and ascend that stream till the first cataract calls a halt. 
But neither of the great mouths of the Nile give good harbors. 
Like those of our own Mississippi, they are narrow and exposed 




ROSETTA STONE. 



by reason of the deposits they continually carry to the sea. 
The two main mouths of the Nile — ^it has had several outlets 
ia the course of time — are over a hundred miles apart. The 



190 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



Western, or Rosetta, mouth was once the seat of a famed city 
from whose ruins were exliumed (1799) the historic "Rosetta 
Stone," now in the British Museum. It was found on the site 
of a temple dedicated by Necho II. to Turn, "The Setting Sun;" 
and the inscription itself, written in three kinds of writing, 
Greek, hieroglyphic, and enchorial, or running hand, was a 
decree of the Egyptian Priests assembled in synod at Memphis 




M. DE LESSEPS. 

in favor of Ptolomy Bpiphanes, who had granted them some 
special favor. Its great value consisted in the fact that it 
afforded a safe key to the reading of the hieroglyphical writings 
found on all Egyptian monuments. 

The Eastern, or Damietta, mouth of the Nile gives a better 
harbor, but the boats are slow. Beyond this is Port Said, 
where you can enter the ship canal across the Isthmus of Suez 
9.nd pass to the Red Sea. But you are not now in the Egypt 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



191 



you seek. There are no verdant meadows and forests of date 
palms and mulberry, whicli give to the interior of Lower Egypt 
— covered with numerous villages and intersected by thousands 
of canals — the picturesque character of a real garden of God. 
You only see a vast sandy plain, stretching on either side of 
the canal. It is a sea of sand with here and there little islands 
of reeds or thorny plants, white with salty deposits. In spite 
of the blue sky, the angel of death has spread his wings over 
this vast solitude where the least sign of life is an event. 

Speaking of canals, re- 
minds one that this Suez 
Canal, 100 miles long, and 
built by M. de Lessei)s, 
1858-1869, was not the 
first to connect the waters 
of the Eed Sea with the 
Mediterranean. One was 
projected B. C. 610 by 
Pharaoh Nccho, but not 
finished till the time of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
which ran from the Eed 
Sea to one of the arms 
of the Nile. It was prac- 
tically out of use in the 
time of Cleopatra. 
The best Mediterranean port of Egypt is Alexandria, the glory 
of which has sadly departed. It is far to the west of the 
Rosetta mouth of the Nile, but is connected by rail with Cairo. 
Though founded 330 B. C, by Alexander the Great, conqueror 
of Egypt, as a commercial outlet, and raised to a population 
splendor and wealth unexcelled by any ancient city, it is now a 
modern place in the midst of impressive ruins. Its mixed and 
unthrifty population is about 165,000. 

As you approach it you are guided by the modern light 
house, 180 feet high, which stands on the site of the Great 
Light of Pharos, built by Ptolemy II., 280 B. C, and whigh 




CLEOPATRA. 



192 



EGYPT AND THE NILE, 




weathered the 

storms of six- 
teen centuries, 
hghting the sea 
for forty miles 
around. It was 
of white mar- 
ble and reck 
oned as one of the " Seven Wonders 
of the World." 

Standing in the streets of Alex- 
andria, Avhat a crowd of historic 
memories rush upon you. You are 
in Lower Egypt, the Delta of the 
Nile, the country of the old Pharaohs 
whose power was felt from the Med- 
iterranean to the Mountains of the 
Moon, whose land was the "black 
land," symbol of plenty among the 
tribes of Arabia and throughout all 
Syria, land where the Hebrews 
wrought and whence they fled back 
to their home on the Jordan, land 
of the Grecian Alexander, the Eoman 
Csesar, the Mohammedan Califf. 

No earthly dynasty ever lasted 
lonoer than that of the Pharaohs. 
We hardly know when time began 
it, but Brugsch dates it from Menes, 
B. C. 4400. It fell permanently with 
Alexander's Conquest, 330 B. C, and 
was held by his successors, the Greek 
Ptolemeys, for three hundred years, 
or until the Eomans took it from Cleopatra, whose name is per- 
petuated in the famous Cleopatra's Needles, which for nearly 
2000 years stood as companion pieces to Pompey's Pillar. 





PHAROS LIGHT. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



193 




ALEXANDER 
THE GEEAT. 



The Pillar of Pompey, 195 feet high, still stands on high 
ground southeast of the city, near the Moslem burial place. 
But the Needles of Cleopatra are gone. Late investigations have 
thrown new light on these wonders. They were not made nor 
erected in honor of Cleopatra at all, but were historic monuments 
erected by the Pharaoh, Thutmes III., 1600 
B. C, at Heliopolis, " City of the Sun." The 
two largest pair were, centuries ago, trans- 
I ported, one to Constantinople, the other to 
Eome. The two smaller pair were taken to 
[Alexandria by Tiberius and set up in front 
of Caesar's Temple, where they obtained the 
well known name of "Cleopatra's Needles," 
One fell down and, after lying prostrate in 
the sand for centuries, was taken to London 
in 1878 and set up on the banks of the 
Thames. It is 68 feet high, and was cut 
out of a single stone from the quarries of 
Syene. The other was taken down and transported to New 
York, where it is a conspicuous object in Central Park. They 
bear nearly similar inscriptions, of the time of Thutmes III. and 
Rameses II. 

Egypt fell into the hands of the Saracen invaders in A. D. 
625, and has ever since been under Mohammedan or Turkish 
rule. The Alexandria of the Ptolemeys with its half million 
people, its magnificent temples, its libraries and museums, its 
learning and art, its commerce for all the world, has lost all its 
former importance, and is to-day a dirty trading town filled 
with a mixed and indolent people. 

There is no chapter in history so sweeping and interesting as 
that which closed the career of Alexandria to the Christian 
world. It was the real centre of Christian light and influ- 
ence. Its bishops were the most learned and potential, its 
schools of Christian thought the most renowned. It was in 
commerce with all the world and could scatter influences wider 
than any other city. It had given the Septuagint version of the 
Bible to the nations. All around, it had made converts of the 
13 



194 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

Coptic elements, whicli were native, and Egypt's natural defend- 
ers in case of war. But these it had estranged. Therefore the 




A CLEOPATRA NEEDLE IN ALEXANDRIA. 

Saracen conquest was easy. Pelusium and Memphis fell. Alex- 
andria was surrounded, and fell A. D. 640. "I have taken," 
says Amrou, "the great city of the west with its 4000 palaces, 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



195 



4000 baths, 400 theatres, 12,000 shops, and 40,000 Jews." Amrou 
would have spared the great hbrary of 700,000 volumes. But 
the Califf's (Omar's) answer came, " These books are useless if 
they contain only the word of God ; thej are pernicious if they 
contain anything else. Therefore destroy them." 

Aside from the monuments above mentioned, there is little 
else to connect it with a glorious past except the catacombs on 
the outskirts, which are of the same general character as those 




IN THE SERAPEION. 



at Eome. These catacombs possess a weird interest wherever 
they exist. They abound in one form or another in Egypt, and 
are found in many other countries where, for their extent and 
curious architecture, they rank as wonders. 

Those lately unearthed in the vast Necropolis of Memphis, 
and called the Serapeion, were the burial place of the Egyptian 
God Apis, or Serapis, the supreme deity represented by the bull 
Apis. This sacred bull was not allowed to live longer than 
twenty-five years. If he died before that age, and of natural 



196 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



causes, he was embalmed as a mummy and interred in the 
Serapeion with great pomp. Otherwise, he was secretly put to 
death and buried by the priests in a well. In the Serapeion 
are some magnificent sarcophagi in granite, and inscriptions 
which preserve the Egyptian chronology from 1400 B. C. to 
177 B. 0. 

The great catacombs at Eome were the burial places of the 
early Christians. It was supposed they were originally the 
quarries from which the building stone of the city had been 

taken. But while this 
is true of the cata- 
combs of Paris, it is 
now conceded that 
those of Eome were 
cut out for burial pur- 
poses only, less per- 
haps to escape from the 
watchfulness of des- 
potic power, than in 
obedience to a wish to 
remain faithful to the 
traditions of the early 
church which preserv- 
ed the Jewish custom 
of rock or cave sepul- 
ture. These catacombs 
are of immense and bewildering proportions. Their leading feature 
is long galleries, the sides of which are filled with niches to receive 
the remains. At first these galleries were on a certain level, 
twenty to thirty feet below the surface. But as space was 
required, they were cut out on other levels, till some of the 
galleries got to be as much as three hundred feet below the 
surface. There are some attempts at carving and statue work 
about the remains of illustrious persons, and many inscriptions 
of great historic value, but in general they have been much abused 
and desecrated, and we are sorry to say chiefly by Christian peoples, 
mostly of the time of the Crusades, who found, or supposed they 




BRONZES OF THE EGYPTIAN GOD APIS. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



197 



would find, ricli booty, in tbe shape of finger rings and other pre. 
cious things laid away with the dead. MacFarlane, in his book 
upon the catacombs, tells of a company of gay young officers of the 




ROMAN CATACOMBS. 



French army who entered them on a tour of inspection. They had 
plenty of lights, provisions, wine and brandy, and their explora- 
tion became a revel. They finally began to banter one another 



198 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

about venturing furthest into the dark labyrinthine recesses. 
One, as impious as he was daring, refused to leave the crypts 
till he had visited all. Darting away, torch in hand, he plunged 
into gallery after gallery, until his torch began to burn low and 
the excitement of intoxication left him. With great difficulty 
he found his way back to the chapel where he had left his 
companions. They were gone. With still greater difficulty he 
reached the entrance to the catacomb. It was closed. He 
shouted frantically, and madly beat upon the railings with a 
piece of tombstone. But it was night and no one could hear. 
In desperation he started back for the chapel. He fell through 
a chasm upon crackling, crumbling bones. The shock to his 
nerves was terrible. Crawling out, he reached the chapel, amid 
intolerable fear. He who had many a time marched undauntedly 
on gleaming lines of bayonets and had schooled himself to look 
upon death without fear, was not equal to the trials of a night 
in a charnel house. His thirst became intolerable. He stumbled 
upon a "bottle left by his companions and, supposing it contained 
water, drank eagerly of its contents. In a few moments the 
drink acted with violence and, in his delirium, he became the 
victim of wild visions. Spectres gathered around him. The 
bones of the dead rose and clattered before him. Fire gleamed 
in eyeless skulls. Flcshless lips chattered and shrieked till the 
caves echoed. Death must soon have been the result of this 
fearful experience had not morning come and brought fresh 
visitors to the catacombs, who discovered the young officer in a 
state of stupor and took him to the hospital. For months he 
lay prostrate with brain fever. He had been taught the weak- 
ness of man in that valley of the shadow of death, and ever 
after gave over his atheistic notions, and lived and died a 
christian. 

You may leave Alexandria by canal for the Nile, and then 
sail to Cairo. You will thus see the smaller canals, the villages, 
the peasantry, the dykes of the Nile, the mounds denoting ruins 
of ancient cities. You will see the wheels for raising water 
from the Nile by foot power, and will learn that the lands 
which are not subject to annual overflow must be irrigated by 



EGYPT AND THE NILE 



199 



canals or bj these wheels. You will see at the point where the 
Nile separates into its Damietta and Eosetta branches, the 
wonderful Barrage, or double bridge, intended to hold back the 
Nile waters for the supply of Lower Egypt without the need 
of water wheels. It is a mighty but faulty piece of engineering 
and does not answer its purpose. From this to Cairo the 
country gets more bluffy and, ere you enter the city, you may 
catch glimpses of the Pyramids off to the right. 




THE MASSACRE OF THE MAMELUKES. 

But the speediest route from Alexandria is by rail. You are 
soon whirled into the Moslem city. Cairo is not an ancient 
city, though founded almost on the site of old Egyptian 
Memphis. It is Saracen, and was then KaMra (Cairo) "City of 
Victory," for it was their first conquest under Omar", after they 
landed and took Pelusium. It was greatly enlarged and beauti- 
fied by Saladin after the overthrow of the Califfs of Bagdad. 
It dates from about A. D. 640. 

It is a thickly built, populous (population 327,000) dirty, noisy, 
narrow streeted, city on the east bank of the Nile. Its mosques, 



200 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



houses, gardens, business, people, "burial places, manners and 
customs, tell at a glance of its Mohammedan origin. Its 
mosques are its chief attraction. They are everywhere, and 
some of them are of vast proportions and great architectural 
beauty. The transfer of the Mameluke power in Egypt to the 
present Khedives was brought about by Mohammed Ali, an 
Albanian. The Mamelukes were decoyed into the citadel at 
Cairo and nearly all murdered. One named Emim Bey escaped 

by leaping on horseback from 
the citadel. He spurred his 
charger over a pile of his dead 
and dying comrades; sprang upon 
the battlements; the next moment 
be was in the air; another, and 
he released himself from his crush- 
ed and bleeding horse amid a 
shower of bullets. He fled ; took 
refuge in the sanctuary of a 
mosque; and finally escaped into 
the deserts of the Thebaid. The 
scene of this event is always 
pointed out to travelers. 
It is a city divided into quarters — the European quarter, Cop- 
tic quarter, Jewish quarter, water carriers' quarters, and so on. 
The narrow streets are lined with bazaars — little stores or mar- 
kets, and thronged by a mixed populace — veiled ladies, priests 
in robes, citizens with turbaned heads, peddlers with trays on 
their heads, beggars without number, desert Bedouins, dervishes, 
soldiers, boatmen and laborers. 

Abraham sent Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac. Matrimonial 
agents still exist in Cairo in the shape of Khatibehs, or betroth- 
ers. They are women, and generally sellers of cosmetics, which 
business gives them opportunity to get acquainted with both 
marriageable sons and daughters. They get to be rare match- 
makers, and profit by their business in a country where a man 
may have as many wives as he can support. 

Your sleep will be disturbed by the Mesahhar who goes 




VEILED BEAUTY. 



EYGPT AND THE NILE. 201 

about the city every morning to announce tlie sunrise, in order 
that every good Moslem may say his prayers before the lumi- 
nary passes the horizon. 

There is no end to the drinking troughs and fountains. 
Joseph's well, discovered and cleaned out by Saladin, is one of 
the leading curiosities. It is 300 feet deep, cut out of the solid 
rock, with a winding staircase to the bottom. 

West of the Nile and nearly opposite Cairo, is the village of 
Ghiseh, on the direct road to the pyramids, mention of which 
introduces us to ancient Egypt and the most wonderful monu- 
ments in the world. 

Menes, " the constant," reigned at Tini. He built Memphis, on 
part of whose site Cairo now stands, but whose centre was fur- 
ther up the Nile. The Egyptian name was Mennofer, "the 
good place." The ruins of Memphis were well preserved down 
to the thirteenth century, and were then glowingly described by 
an Arab physician, Latif. But the stones were gradually trans- 
ported to Cairo, and its ruins reappeared in the mosques and 
palaces of that place. 

Westward of the Nile, and some distance from it, was the 
Necropolis of Memphis — its common and royal burying ground, 
with its wealth of tombs, overlooked by the stupendous buildings 
of the pyramids which rose high above the monuments of the 
noblest among the noble families who, even after life was done, 
reposed in deep pits at the feet of their lords and masters. The 
contemporaries of the third (3966 B. C. to 3766 B. C.) fourth 
(3733 B. C. to 3600 B. C.) and fifth (3566 B. C. to 3333 B. C.) 
dynasties are here buried and their memories preserved by pic- 
tures and writings on the walls of their chambers above their 
tombs. This is the fountain of that stream of traditions which 
carries us back to the oldest dynasty of that oldest country. 
If those countless tombs had been preserved entire to us, we 
could, in the light of modern interpretation, read with accuracy 
the genealogies of the kings and the noble lines that erected 
them. A few remaining heaps enable us to know what they 
mean and to appreciate the loss to history occasioned by their 
destruction. 



202 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

They have served to rescue from oblivion the fact that the 
Pharaohs of Memphis had a title which was " King of Upper 
and Lower Egypt." At the same time he was "Peras," "of the 
great house" — written Pharaoh in the Bible. He was a god for 
his subjects, a lord par excellence, in whose sight there should 
be prostration and a rubbing of the ground with noses. They 
saluted him with the words "his holiness." The royal court 
was composed of the nobility of the country and servants of 
inferior rank. The former added to dignity of origin the 
graces of wisdom, good manners, and virtue. Chiefs, or scribes 
carried on the affairs of the court. 

The monuments clearly speak of Senoferu, of the third 
dvnasty, B. C. 3766. A ravine in the Memphian Necropolis, 
where are many ancient caverns, contains a stone picture of 
Senoferu, who appears as a warrior striking an enemy to the 
ground with a mighty club. The rock inscriptions mention his 
name, with the title of "vanquisher of foreign peoples" who in his 
time inhabited the cavernous valleys in the mountains round Sinai. 

The Pharaohs of the fourth dynasty were the builders of the 
hugest of the pyramids. The tables discovered at Abydos make 
Khufu the successor of Senoferu. Khufu is the Cheops of the 
historian Herodotus. His date was 3733 B. C. 

No spirited traveler ever sets foot on the black soil of 
Egypt, without gazing on that wonder of antiquity, the three- 
fold mass of the pyramids on the steep edge of the desert, an 
hour's ride over the long causeway extending out from Gliiseh. 
The desert's boundless sea of yellow sand, whose billows are 
piled up around the gigantic pyramids, deeply entombing the 
tomb, surges hot and dry far up the green meadows and mingles 
with the growing grass and corn. From the far distance you 
see the giant forms of the pyramids, as if they were regularly 
crystalized mountains, which the ever-creating nature has called 
forth from the mother soil of rock, to lift themselves up 
towards the blue vault of heaven. And yet they are but tombs, 
built by the hands of men, raised by King Khufu (Cheops) and 
two other Pharaohs of the same family and dynasty, to be the 
admiration and astonishment of the ancient and modern world. 



204 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



We speak now of the three largest — there are six others m 
this group, and twentj-seven more throughout the Nile valley. 
They are perfectly adjusted to points of the compass — north, 
sonth, east and west. Modern investigators have found in the 
construction, proportions and position of the "Great Pyramid" 
especially, many things which point to a marvellous knowledge 
of science on the part of their builders. If the half they say is 
true of them, there are a vast number of lost arts to discredit 
modern genius. Some go so far as to trace in their measure 

ments and constru( 
t i o n, not only 
prophecy of the cod 
ing of Christ, but 
chart of the events 
which have signal- 
ized the world's his^ 
tory and are yet to 
make it memorable. 
They base their rea- 
soning on the fact 
that there was no 
architectural model 
for them and no 
books extant to teach 
SHOWING the science requisite 
for their construc- 
tion, that their 
height and bases bear certain proportions to each other, and 
to the diameter of a great circle, that they are on the line of 
a true meridian, that certain openings point to certain stars, and 
so on till ingenuity is exhausted. 

The three large pyramids measure thus 




SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID, 
ITS INTERIOR. 



Khufu (Cheops), 

Khafra, 

Menkara, 



Great Pyramid 
Second " 
Third « 



Height. 


Breadth of ba 


450.75 feet, 


746 feet. 


447. 5 " 


690.75 ■' 


203. " 


352.88 " 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 205 

As soon as a Pharaoli mounted tlie tbrone he gave orders to 
a nobleman, master of all the buildings, to plan the work and 
rat the stone. ' The kernel of the future edifice was raised on 
the limestone rock of the desert in the form of a small pyramid 
built in steps. Its well constructed and finished interior formed 
the king's eternal dwelling, with his stone sarcophagus lying on 
the stone floor. Let us suppose this first building finished while 
the king still lived. A second covering was added on the outside 
of the first ; then a third ; then a fourth ; and so the mass of the 
giant building grew greater the longer the king lived. Then at 
last, when it became almost impossible to extend the area of 
the pyramid further, a casing of hard stone, polished like glass, 
and fitted accurately into the angles of the steps, covered the 
vast mass of the king's sepulchre, presenting a gigantic triangle 
on each of its four faces. More than seventy of such pyramids 
once rose on the margin of the desert, each telling of a king, of 
whom it was at once the tomb and the monument. 

At present the Great Pyramid is, externally, a rough, huge 
mass, of limestone blocks, regularly worked and cemented. The 
top is flattened. The outside polished casing, as well as the 
top, has been removed by the builders of Cairo, for mosques 
and palaces, as have many of the finest ruins on the Nile. 

The Sphinx was sculptured at some time not far removed 
from the building of the three great pyramids. Eeceiit discov- 
eries have increased the astonishment of mankind at the bulk 
of this monstrous figure and at the vast and nnknoAvn buildings 
that stood around it and, as it were, lay between its paws. It 
is within a few years that the sand has been blown away and 
revealed these incomprehensible structures. In a well near by 
was found a finely executed statue of Khafra, builder of the 
second pyramid. 

There are other sphinxes, but this at the base of the Great 
Pyramid is the largest. It has a man's head and a lion's body, 
and is supposed to represent the kingly power of the sun god. 
Its length is 140 feet, and height 30 feet. Between its paws is 
an altar, to which you ascend by a long flight of steps. The 
Arabs call it "the fatherly terror." 



206 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



In the middle "chamber of the dead" of Meukara's pyramid 
was found his stone sarcopagus and its wooden cover, both 
beautifully adorned in the style of a temple. They were taken 
out and shipped for England, but the vessel was wrecked, and 
the sarcophagus now lies at the bottom of the Mediterranean. 
The lid was ^aved and is now in the British Museum. On it 
is carved a text or prayer to Osiris, king of the gods: "O 




SPHINX. 



Osiris, who hast become king of Egypt, Menkara living eter- 
nally, child of heaven, son of the divine mother, heir of time, 
over thee may she stretch herself and cover thee, thy divine 
mother, in her name as mystery of heaven. May she grant 
that thou shouldst be like god, free from all evils, king Men- 
kara, living eternally." 

The prayer is not uncommon, for parts of it have been found 
on other monuments. Its sense is, "Delivered from mortal 
matter, the soul of the dead king passes through the immense 
spaces of heaven to unite itself with god, after having overcome 
the evil which opposed it on its journey through earth." 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 207 

The entrance to the great pyramid was formerly quite con- 
cealed, only the priests knowing where to find the movable 
stone that would admit them. But now the opening is plain, 
and is about forty-five feet from the ground on the north side. 
Thence there is a descent through a narrow passage for 320 
feet into the sepulchral chamber. The passage is much blocked 
and difficult. The great red granite sarcophugus is there, empty 
and broken, mute receptacle of departed greatness, for which 
the relic hunter has had quite too little respect. 

With the end of the fifth dynasty pyramid building ceased. 
The glory of Memphis departed and went to Thebes, where 
kingly vanity seems to have sought outlet in the temple archi- 
tecture whose ruins are the wonder of the world. 

Above the old site of Memphis, is Toora, and out on its 
desert side are the pyramids of Sakkarah, eleven in number. 
The most remarkable is the Step Pyramid, believed to be more 
ancient than those of Ghiseh. But there is something even more 
wonderful here — the Temple of Serapis, which it took four 
years to disengage from the sands of the desert after its site 
was discovered. It seems to have been dedicated to Serapis, the 
sacred bull of Egypt. Beneath it is a great catacomb where once 
laid the remains of thousands of sacred bulls. Their stone 
coffins are still there, cut out of solid blocks of granite, and measur- 
ing fourteen feet long by eleven feet high. 

Further up the Nile are the high limestone cliff's of Gebel-et- 
Teyr, on which perches the Coptic " Convent of the Pulley." 
The monks who live here are great beggars. They let themselves 
down from .the cliff and swim off to a passing boat to ask alms 
in the name of their Christianity. 

The next town of moment is Siout, capital of Upper Egypt. 
It stands on the site of ancient Lycopolis, "wolf city," and is 
backed in by lofty cliffs, from which the views are very fine. 
Further up is Girgeh, whence you must take journey on the 
back of donkeys to Abydos, off eastward on the edge of the 
desert. Here was the most ancient city of This, or Tini, where 
Mena reigned, on whose ruins Abydos was built, itself an anti- 
quity and wonder. Here is the great temple begun by Seti I. 



208 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

and completed bj his son Eameses II., 1333 B. C. Eameses II., 
was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Its roof, pillars and walls are 
all preserved and the chiselling on the latter is something mar- 
vellous. What renders it doubly interesting is, the name of the 
sculptor is preserved. His name was Hi, and he must have 
been a man of decided genius, for his picture of the king and 
son taming the bull is quite spirited. In this temple is also 
the celebrated sculpture called the " Table of Abjdos," which 
gives a list of sixty-five kings, from Menes down to the last 
king of the twelfth dynasty, a period of 2166 years. It is a 
most invaluable record and has done much to throw light on 
Egyptian history. It was discovered in 1865. Abydos then, or 
Tini, was the starting point of Egyptian power and civilization, as 
we now know it. Here was the first dynasty of the Pharaohs, trans- 
ferred afterwards to Memphis where the pyramids became theii- 
monuments, re-transferred to Thebes where the temples chron- 
icled their greatness and grandeur. Old as Thebes is, Abydos is 
older, and Tini older still. Most carefully has the temple at 
Abydos been exhumed from the sand which has preserved it for 
three thousand years, most of the time against the hands of those 
who, knowing better, would have spoiled its fair proportions and 
its great historic value. Abydos seems to have been a city of 
tombs, and it is possible that the greatness of all Egypt sought 
it as a burial place. 

The most powerful of these Theban Kings, were those of the 
twelfth dynasty and on, beginning 2466 B. C, though Thebes can be 
traced back to the sixth dynasty as a city. It was a period in 
which strong monarchs ruled, and the arts were cultivated with 
magnificent results. Thebes was the capital, and on its temples and 
palaces the most enormous labor and expense were lavishly 
bestowed. And this not in Thebes alone, but in all the cities 
of Egypt; and they all make history too, impressive, invaluable 
history. 

Siout owes its present importance to the caravan trade with 
Darfur and Nubia. Passing on toward Thebes, the river banks 
get more and more bluffy. You soon come to Dendera on the 
west bank. Its ruins are magnificent, and by many regarded 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 209 

as the finest in Egypt. Tlie portico of its ancient temple is 
inconceivably grand. Its length is 265 feet and height 60 feet. 
It is entirely covered with mystic, varied and fantastic sculp- 
tures, hieroglyphics, groups, figures of deities, sacred animals, 
processions of soldiers — in short the manners and mythology of 
all Egypt. The workmanship is elaborate and finished. The 
interior is no less beautiful. The roof contained a sculptured 
representation of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. It has been 
taken down and is now in the museum at Paris. 

A few miles further on in this bewildering region of solid 
rock bluffs, immense quarries, deep sculptured caverns, you come 
to Thebes itself, " City of the hundred gates," lying on both 
sides of the Nile, the reports of whose power and splendor we 
would regard as fabulous, were its majestic ruins not there still 
to corroborate every glowing account. Whatever of Egyptian 
art is older than that of the Theban era — lacked the beauty 
which moves to admiration. Beginning with the Theban kings 
of the twelfth dynasty, the harmonious form of beauty united 
with truth and nobleness meets the eye of the beholder as well 
in buildings as in statues. The great labyrinth and the excava- 
tion for the artificial lake Mceris, at Alexandria, were made 
during this period. In Tanis, at the mouth of the Nile, was 
erected a temple whose inscriptions show not only the manners 
of the country with great historic accuracy, but tell the tale of 
frequent trade with the people from Arabia and Canaan. 

The site of Thebes is an immense amphitheatre with the 
Nile in the centre. At first you see only a confusion of portals, 
obelisks and columns peeping through or towering above the 
palm treees. Gradually you are able to distinguish objects, and 
the first that strikes you is the ruins of Luxor on the eastern 
bank. They overlook the Arab village at their base, and con- 
sist of a long row of columns and the huge gateway of the 
Temple of Luxor. The columns are those of an immense 
portico, and by them stood two beautiful obelisks, one of which 
is now in the Place de Concorde, Paris. The columns are 
monoliths, fully ten feet in diameter, and many of them in a 
perfect state. All are covered with inscriptions of various 

14 



210 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



signification. This temple was built hy Eameses II., and is 
therefore not one of the oldest in Egypt, though not the least 
interesting. On the westward or opposite side of the Nile is 
Memnon and the temple home of Rameses II. There is little 
or nothing of the temple there, but twin colossal statues stand 
in lonely desolation on the plain, and these once guarded the 
temple entrance. One is perfect, the other broken. Both meas- 
ured sixty-four feet in height. They are sitting giants carved 
from solid stone. They represented King Amenhotep, in whose 
honor the temple was built. At their feet are small sitting 

statues, one of his wife Thi, 
^— - the other of his mother Mut- 
em-ua, each carved out of 
red sandstone mixed with 
white quartz, and each a 
marvellous exhibition of 
skill in treating the hardest 
and most brittle materials. 
They stand twenty-two feet 
apart. The northern, or broken 
one, is that which the Greeks 
and Romans celebrated in 
poetry aud prose as the 
" vocal statue of Memnon." 
Its legs are covered with in- 
scriptions of Greek, Roman, 
Phoenician and Egyptian, 
travelers, written to assure the reader that they had really vis- 
ited the place or had heard the musical tones of Memnon at 
the rising of the sun. 

In the year 27 B. C. the upper part of this statue was remov- 
ed from its place and thrown down by an earthquake. From 
that time on, tourists began to mutilate it by cutting into it 
their befitting or unbefitting remarks. The assurances that they 
had heard Memnon sing or ring ceased under the reign of Septi- 
mius Severus who completed the wanting upper part of the body 
as well as he could with blocks of stone piled up and fastened 




THE COLOSSI. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



211 



togetlier. It is a well known fact that split or, cracked 
rocks, after cooling during the night, at the rising of the sun or 
as soon as the stone becomes warm, may emit a prolonged ring- 
ing note. After the statue was restored in the manner above 
described, the sound, if ever it emitted any, naturally ceased. 
Tlie crack was covered by the masonry. 




THE KAMESEION OF THEBES AND COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMESES. 

The story of the architect of this temple is told in the hiero- 
glyphics. That part which relates to these two memorable 
statues tells how he conceived them without any order from 
the king, cut them out of solid rock, and employed eight ships 
to move them from the quarries down the Nile to Memphis. 
Even in our highly cultivated age, with all its inventions 
and machines which enable us by the help of steam to 
raise and transport the heavi©st weights, the shipment 
and erection of the mammoth statues of Memnon remain an 
msoluble riddle. Verily the architect, Amenhotep the son of 



212 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

Hapoo, must have been not only a wise but a specially ingenious 
man of his time. 

Back of the Memnon Statues and the ruins of the "Palace 
Temple," which they guarded, and 500 yards nearer the Lybian 
desert, stood the Kameseion. It was both palace and temple. 
It is finely situated on the lowest grade of the hills as they 
begin to ascend from the plain, and its various parts occupy a 
series of terraces, one rising above the other in a singularly 
impressive and majestic fashion. Its outer gateway, is grandly 
massive. Sculptures embellish it, very quaint and vivid. It 
formed the entrance to the first court, Avhose walls are destroyed. 
Some picturesque Ramessid columns remain, however; and at 
their foot lie the fragments of the hugest statue that was ever 
fashioned by Egyptian sculptor. It was a fitting ornament for 
a city of giants; such an effigy as might have embellished a 
palace built and inhabited by Titans. Unhappily, it is broken 
from the middle; but when entire it must have weighed about 
887 tons, and measured 22 feet 4 inches across the shoulders, 
and 14 feet 4 inches from the neck to the elbow. The toes are 
from 2 to 3 feet long. The whole mass is composed of Syene 
granite ; and it is offered as a problem to engineers and contractors 
of the present day, — How were nearly 900 tons of granite con- 
veyed some hundreds of miles from Syene to Thebes? 1/ is 
equally difficult to imagine how, in a country not afflicted by 
earthquakes, so colossal a monument was overthrown. 

Such was the Rameseion. It looked towards the east, facing 
the magnificent temple at Karnak. Its propylon, or gateway, 
in the days of its glory, was in itself a structure of the highest 
architectural grandeur, and the portion still extant measures 234 
feet in length. The principal edifice was about 600 feet in 
length and 200 feet in breadth, with upwards of 160 columns, 
each 30 feet in height. A wall of brick enclosed it; and a 
dromos, fully 1600 feet long, and composed of two hundred 
sphinxes, led in a northwesterly direction to a temple or fortress, 
sheltered among the Libyan hills. 

This period of temple building and ornamentation which 
makes Thebes as conspicuous in Egyptian history as pyramid 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



218 



building had made Memphis, extended over several dynasties, 
and practically ended with the twentieth (1200 B. C. 1133 B. 
C.) which embraced the long line of Eameses, except Eameses 
I. and II. This was the time of the Hebrew captivity and of 
the Exodus. 

The most illustrious of all these kings — the Alexander the 
Great of Egyptian history — was Thutmes III., who reigned for 
53 years, and carried Egyptian power into the heart of Africa 




THE GEEAT COURT AND OBELISK OF KARNAK. 

as well as Asia. Countless memorials of his reign exist in 
papyrus rolls, on temple walls, in tombs and even on beetles 
and other ornaments. These conquests of his brought to 
Egypt countless prisoners of every race who, according to the 
old custom, found employment in the public works. It was prin- 
cipally to the great public edifices, and among those especially 
to the enlarged buildings of the temple at Amon (Ape) near 
Karnak, that these foreigners were forced to devote their time. 
Though Karnak is several miles further up the Nile, and on 



214 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



the same side as Luxor, it is in tbe same splendid natural 
amphitheatre, and is a part of the grand temple system of 
Thebes and its suburbs. Let us visit its magnificent ruins 
before stopping to look in upon Thebes proper. 

The Karnak ruins surpass in imposing grandeur all others in 
Egypt and the world. The central hall of the Grand Temple is 
SI nearly complete ruin, but a room has been found which con- 
tained a stone tablet on 
which Thutmes III. is 
represented as giving recog- 
nition to his fifty-six royal 
predecessors. This valuable 
historic tablet has been car- 
ried away and is now in 
Paris. This temple was 
1108 feet long and 800 
wide. But this temple was 
only a part of the gorgeous 
edifice. On three sides 
were other temples, a long 
way off", yet connected with 
the central one by avenues 
whose sides were lined with 
statuary, mostly sphinxes. 
Many of the latter are yet 
in place, and are slowly 
crumbling to ruin. Two 
colossal statues at the door 
of the temple now He prostrate. Across the entire ruins appear 
fragments of architecture, trunks of broken columns, mutilated 
statues, obelisks, some fallen others majestically erect, immense halls 
whose roofs are supported by forests of columns, and portals, 
surpassing all former or later structures. Yet when the plan 
is studied and understood, its regularity appears wonderful and the 
beholder is lost in admiration. Here are two obelisks, one 69 feet 
high, the other 91 feet, the latter the highest in Egypt, and 
adorned with sculptures of perfect execution. One hundred and 




SPHINX OF KAENAK. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



215 



thirty -four columns of solid stone, each seventy feet high and eleven 
in diameter, supported the main hall of the temple which was 
329 feet by 170 feet. The steps to the door are 40 feet long 
and 10 wide. The sculptures were adorned with colors, which 
have withstood the ravages of time. Fifty of the sphinxea 
remain, and there is evidence that the original number was six 
hundred. 




GATEWAY AT KAENAK. 



All who have visited this scene describe the impression as 
superior to that made by any earthly object. Says Denon, 
"The whole French army, on coming in sight of it, stood still, 
struck as it were with an electric shock." Belzoni says: "The 
sublimest ideas derived from the most magnificent specimens of 
modern architecture, cannot eq^^al those imparted by a sight of 
these ruins. I appeared to be entering a city of departed 
giants, and I seemed alone in the midst of all that was most 
sacred in the world. The forest of enormous columns adorned 
all round with beautiful figures and various ornaments, the high 
portals seen at a distance from the openings to this vast labj* 



216 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



rintli of edifices, tlie various groups of ruins in tlie "adjoining 
temples — tliese had such an effect as to separate me in imagina- 
tion from the rest of mortals, and make me seem unconscious 
whether I was on earth or some other planet." 

And Karnak, like all Nile scenes, is said 
to be finer bj moonlight than sunlight. 
But jou must go protected, for the wild 
beast does not hesitate to make a lair of 
the caverns amid these ruins. Human 
vanity needs no sadder commentary. 

This temple was the acme of old 
Egyptian art. Its mass was not the work 
of one king, but of many. It therefore 
measures taste, wealth and architectural 
vigor better than a book. But its founder, 
Thutmes III., left similar monuments to 
his power. They have been traced in 
Nubia, in the island of Elephantine, in 
various cities of northern Egypt, and even 
in Mesopotamia. 

In Central Thebes you meet with ruins 
of the home palace or dwelling place of 
Barneses III. The king's chamber can be 
traced by the character of the sculptures. 
You see in these the king attended by 
the ladies of his harem. They are giving 
him lotus flowers and waving fans before 
him. In one picture he sits with a fav- 
orite at a game of draughts. His arm 
is extended holding a piece in the act of 
moving. And so the various domestic 
scenes of the old monarch appear, reproducing for us, after a 
period of 3500 years, quite a history of how things went on in 
the palaces of royalty upon the Nile. 

The tombs of Thebes surpass all others in number, extent 
and splendor. They are back toward the desert in the rocky 
chain which bounds it. Here are subterranean works which 




A MUMMY. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



217 



almost rival the pyramids in wonder. Entrance galleries cut 
into the solid rock lead to distant central chambers where are 
deposited the sarcophagi which contained the bodies of the 
dead. The walls everywhere, and the sarcophagi, or stone 
coffins, are elaborately sculptured with family histories, pray- 
ers, and all the ornaments which formed the pride of the 
living. Festivals, agricultural operations, commercial transac- 
tions, hunts, bullfights, fishing and fowling scenes, vineyards, 
ornamental grounds, form the subject of these varied, interesting 
and truly historic sketches. The chambers and passages which ran 
in various directions contain mummies in that wonderful state 




TEMPLE AT EDFOU. 

of preservation which the Egyptians alone had the art of 
securing. They are found wrapped in successive folds of linen, 
saturated with bitumen, so as to preserve to the present the 
form and even the features of the dead. Alas! how these 
sacred resting places have been desecrated. The sarcophagi 
have been broken and carried away, and the mummified remains 
that rested securely in their niches for thousands of years have 
been dragged out to gratify the curiosity of sight seers in all 
quarters of the globe. 



218 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



Beyond Thebes, tlie Nile enters a narrow sand-stone gorge. 
But just before you enter this you pass the very wonderful 
temple of Edfou, in almost a perfect state of preservation, 
further testimonial to the wealth, power and art of those old 




TEMPLE COUET AT PHIL^, 

Theban kings. Entering the gorge, the rocks overhang tbe 
river for miles on miles. You are now in the midst of the 
sandstone quarries whence were drawn the material for many a 
statue and temple. At the head of the gorge is Assouan, trad- 
ing point for the Soudan and Central Africa. It is the ancient 
Syene, and is the real quarrying ground of Egypt, The red 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 21& 

granite from the steps of Syene is in the pyramids and all the 
mighty monuments of the Nile valley. Entering the vast 
quarries here, you can see a large obelisk not entirely detached 
from the solid rock, lying just as it was left by the workmen 
thousands of years ago. There are also half finished monuments 
of other forms still adhering to their mother rock, and a 
monstrous sarcophagus which had for some reason been dis- 
carded ere it was quite finished. 

In the river opposite Assouan is the Island of Elephantine or 
" Isle of Flowers," on which are the ruins of two temples of the 
Theban period. Three miles above is the first cataract of the 
Nile, which was reckoned as the boundary of Upper Egypt, 

You are now 580 miles south of Cairo and 730 from the 
Mediterranean, on the borders of Nubia. Assouan is a border 
town now, with 4000 people, but in the time of old Theban kings 
Syene was not on the margin of their empire and glory, nor did the 
wonders of the Nile valley cease here, A short way above 
Assouan is the beautiful island of Philee, the turning point of 
tourists on the Nile, crowned with its temples, colonnades and 
palms and set in a framework of majestic rocks and purple 
mountains. The island was especially dedicated to the worship 
of Isis, and her temple is yet one of the most beautiful of 
Egyptian ruins, as much of the impressive coloring of the interior 
remains uninjured. The ruins of no less than eight distinct 
temples exist here, some of which are as late as the Eoman 
occupation of Egypt, 

One hundred and twenty miles above, or south of, the first 
cataract of the Nile, thirty- six miles north of the last, and 
quite within the borders of Nubia, the traveller, struck hitherto 
with the impoverished aspect of the country, suddenly pauses with 
astonishment and admiration before a range of colossal statues 
carved out of the rocky side of a hill of limestone, the base of 
which is washed by the famous river. 

For centuries the drifting sands of the desert had accumulated 
over the architectural wonders of Ipsambul, and no sign of 
them was visible except the head of one gigantic statue. 

No traveler seems to have inquired what this solitary land- 



Ii20 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



mark meant ; whether it indicated the site of a city, a palace, 
or a tomb; until, in 1717, the enthusiastic Belzoni undertook 
the worlc of excavation. His toil was well rewarded; for it 
brought to light a magnificent specimen of the highest Egyptian 
art; a specimen which, with Champollion, we may confidently 
attribute to the palmiest epoch of Pharaonic civilization. 




TEMPLE OF ISIS, ISLAND OF PHIL^. 

Every voyager who visits Ipsambul seems inspired with more 
than ordinary feelings of admiration. 

Here, exclaims Eliot Warburton, the daring genius of 
Ethiopian architecture ventured to enter into rivalry wit^ 
Nature's greatness, and found her material in the very moun- 
tains that seemed to bid defiance to her efforts. 

You can conceive nothing more singular and impressive, says 
Mrs. Eomer, than the fayade of the Great Temple; for it is both 
a temple and a cave. Ipsambul, remarks Sir F. Henniker, is 
the ne plus ultra of Egyptian labor; and in itself an ample 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



221 



recompense for the labor of a voyage up tlie Nile. There is 
no temple, of either Dendera, Thebes, or Philse, which can be 
put in competition with it ; and one may well be contented to finish 
one's travels with having seen the noblest monument of antiquity 
in Nubia and Egypt, 

There are two temples at Ipsambul — one much larger than 
the other; but each has a speos^ or cavern, hewn out of the 
solid rock. Let us first visit the more considerable, consecrated 
by Eameses II. to the sun-god Phrah, or Osiris, whose statue 
is placed above the entrance door. An area of 187 feet wide 
by 86 feet high is excavated from the mountain, the sides 

being perfectly 
smooth, except 
where ornamented 
by relievos. The 
facade consists of 
four colossal stat- 
ues of Eameses II. 
seated, each 65 feet 
high, two on either 
side of the gate- 
way. From the 
shoulder to the 
tiara they measure 
15 feet 6 inches; the ears are 3 feet 6 inches long; the face 
7 feet; the beard 5 feet 6 inches; the shoulders 25 feet 4 
inches across. The moulding of each stony countenance is 
exquisite. 

The beauty of the curves is surprising in stone; the rounding 
of the muscles and the flowing lines of the neck and face are 
executed with great fidelity. 

Between the legs of these gigantic Eamessids are placed four 
statues of greatly inferior dimensions; mere pigmies compared 
with their colossal neighbors, and yet considerably larger than 
ordinary human size. The doorway is twenty feet high. On 
either side are carved some huge hieroglyphical reliefs, while 
the whole fa9ade is finished by a cornice and row of quaintly 




FACADE OF TEMPLE OF PHRAH-IPSAMBUL. 



222 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



carved figures underneatli a frieze of 21 monkeys, eacli eight 
feet higli and six feet across the shoulders. Passing the door- 
way you enter a vast and gloomy hall. Here is a vast and 
mysterious aisle whose pillars are eight colossal giants on whom 
the rays of heaven never shone. They stand erect, with hands 
across their stony breasts; figures of the all conquering Eameses, 
whose mitre-shaped head dresses, each wearing in front the 
serpent, emblem of royal power, nearly touch the roof. They 
are all perfectly alike ; all carry the crosier and flail ; every face 
ia characterized by a deep and solemn expression. How different 




INTERIOR OF THE TEMPLE OF OSIRIS. 

from the grotesque and often unclean monsters which embody 
the Hindoo conception of Divine attributes! They are the very 
types of conscious power, of calm and passionless intellect; as 
far removed from the petty things of earth as the stars from 
the worm that crawls beneath the sod. 

These images of the great king are supported against enor- 
mous pillars, cut out of the sohd rock ; and behind them run two 
gorgeous galleries, whose walls are covered with historical bas- 
reliefs of battle and victory, of conquering warriors, bleeding vic- 
tims, fugitives, cities besieged, long trains of soldiers and captives, 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 223 

numerous companies of chariots, all combined in a picture of 
great beauty and impressive effect. 

This entrance chamber is 57 feet by 52 feet. It opens into a 
cellar 35 feet long, 25^ feet wide and 22 feet high, and is sup- 
ported in the centre by four pillars each three feet square. Its 
walls are embellished by fine hieroglyphs in an excellent state of 
preservation. Behind is a smaller chamber where, upon thrones 
of rock, are seated the three divinities of the Egyptian trinity 
Ammon-Ea, Phrah and Phtah, accompanied by Eameses the 
Great, here admitted on an equality with them. On either side 
of the outer entrance are doors leading to rooms hewn out of 
solid rock. They are six in number and each is profusely orna- 
mented with lamps, vases, piles of cakes and fruits and other 
offerings to the Gods. The lotus is painted in every stage of its 
growth, and the boat is a frequent symbol. These bas-reliefs 
seem to have been covered with a stucco which was painted in 
various colors. The ground color of the ceiling is blue and cov- 
ered with symbolic birds. Well may Champollion exclaim: 
" The temple of Ipsambul is in itself worthy a journey to Nubia;" 
or Lenormant say, " It is the most gigantic conception ever 
begotten by the genius of the Pharaohs." It is a temple of 
Eameses II., of the nineteenth Theban dynasty, who figures as 
the Sesostris of the Greeks. 

Hardly less interesting is the Little Temple of Ipsambul, dedi- 
cated to Athor, or Isis, the Egyptian Yenus, by the queen of 
Rameses the Great. Either side^ of its doorway is flanked by 
statues thirty feet high, sculptured in relief on the compact mass 
of rock, and standing erect with their arms by their sides. The 
centre figure of each three represents the queen as Isis, her face 
surmounted by a moon within a cow's horns. The other images 
are intended for King Rameses himself Beneath the right hand 
of each are smaller statues representing the three sons and 
three daughters of the king and queen. 

A portion of the rock, measuring one hundred and eleven feet 
in length, has been excavated to make room for the fa9ade of 
the temple. The devices begin on the northern side with an 
image of Rameses brandishing his falchion, as if about to strike. 



224 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



Athor, behind liim, lifts her hand in compassion for the victim; 
Osiris, in front, holds forth the great knife, as if to command 
the slaughter. He is seated there as the judge, and decides the 
fate of the peoples conquered bj the Egyptian king. The next 
object is a colossal statue of about thirty feet high, wrought in 
a deep recess of the rock: it represents Athor standing, and 
two tall plumes spring from the middle of her head-dress, with 
the symbohc crescent on either side. Then comes a mass of 
hieroglyphics, and above them are seated the sun-god and the 




TEMPLE OF ATHOE IPSAMBUL. 



hawk-headed deity Anubis. On either side of the doorway, as 
you pass into the pronaos, offerings are presented to Athor, — 
who holds in her hand the lotus-headed sceptre, and is sur- 
rounded with a cloud of emblems and inscriptions. This hall 
is supported by six square pillars, all having the head of 
Athor on the front face of their capitals; the other three faces 
being occupied with sculptures, once richly painted, and still 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 225 

exhibiting traces of blue, red, and yellow coloring. The shafts 
are covered with hieroglyphs, and emblematical representations 
of Osiris, Athor, Kneph, and other deities. 

if these sacred edifices inspire a feeling of awe in the spec- 
tator, while in ruin, what must their effect have been when 
their shrines contained their mystics images; when the open 
portals revealed their sculptures and the walls their glowing 
colors to the worshipping multitudes; when the roofs shone 
with azure and gold ; when the colossal forms represented the 
deities in whom they reposed their faith; when processions of 
kings, nobles and priests marched along their torch lit aisles; 
when incense filled the air and the vaults resounded with the 
music of ten thousand voices; when every hieroglyph and 
emblem had a meaning to the kneeling votary, now forgotten 
or never known? 

Numerous other Nubian temples bear witness to Egyptian 
prowess, wealth, patience and religious sentiment. That at Derr 
is cut out of the solid rock to a depth of 110 feet, and its grand 
entrance chamber is supported by six columns representing 
Osiris. It was built in honor of the great Eameses. At Ibrim 
are four rock temples, all of the time of the Theban kings. 
And so the traveler up the Nile, and into the domains of far 
off Nubia, is continually meeting with these vast rock temples, 
monuments of the Egyptian kings on the one hand, tombs of 
the nobility on the other, and worshiping halls for all. 

Returning to Egypt and passing down the eastern arm of the 
Nile to Tanis, or Beni-Hassan, where the Hebrews and Arabs 
were wont to trade with the Egyptians, we find one of the 
oldest authentic monuments, except the pyramids, and certainly 
the most interesthig to us. It is the tomb of a nobleman under 
Usurtasen II. B. C. 2366. The rich paintings on the walls of 
this tomb are of inestimable value as showing the arts, trades, 
and domestic, public and religious institutions of the Egyptians 
at this period. They are still more valuable in an historic 
view, for they relate to the arrival of a family of thirty-seven 
persons from the Hebrew or Semitic nation, who had come to 
fix their abode on the blessed banks of the Nile. The father 
15 



226 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



of the family is represented as offering a gift to the king. 
Behind him are his companions, bearded men, armed with lances, 
bows and clubs. The women are dressed in the lively fashion 
of the Amu tribe, to which the family belongs. The children 
and asses are loaded with baggage. A companion of the party 
is standing by with a lyre of very old form. The gift of the 
father, or patriarch, was the paint of Midian, an article highly 
prized by the Egyptians. Many persons have been eager to 

associate this inscrip- 



tion, or sculpture, 
with the arrival of 
the sons of Jacob in 
Egj^pt, to implore 
the favor of Joseph; 
but it antedates that 
event so far that 
there can be no pos- 
sible connection be- 
tween them. It does 
show however that 
iilll arrivals in Egypt 
from Arabia and 
Palestine, for pur- 
poses of trade and 
even permanent residence, were not confined by any means to 
the scriptural period. 

But where in Egypt do these wonders of monument, of sculp- 
ture, of sacred writing, not exist? We find them everywhere, 
telling of a people full of genius and the germs of all civilization. 
You read as you could not read from a book, for there is no con- 
flict of sentiment, no odd statements to reconcile. And what do you 
read? That the art of writing was familiar to priest and scribe. 
That they had ships, for their inscriptions show handsome nauti- 
cal designs. There are glass blowers, flax dressers, spinners, 
weavers, and bales of cloth. There are potters, painters, car- 
penters, and statuaries. There is a doctor attending a patient 
and a herdsman physicking cattle. The hunters employ arrows, 




INTERIOK OF EOCK TOMB — BENI-HASSAN. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



227 



spears and the lasso. There is the Nile full of fish and a hip- 
popotamus among the ooze. There is the bastinado for the men 
and the flogging of a seated woman. There are games of ball and 
other amusements for men and women. And then the luxuries i 
There are harpers, costly garments, patterns of every design, 




EGYPTIAN BRICK FIELD. 



fashions for the hair, costly spices and perfumes. They have 
portrayed every type of life and business with a faithfulness 
which is astonishing. 

The most mysterious of Egyptian monuments is "The Caves 
of the Crocodiles," or Grottoes of Samoun, in Upper Egypt. 
They are not often visited because travelers are repelled at the 



228 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



outset by their difficulty and gloom. They are filled with an 
incalculable number of human mummies, and those of the 
crocodile, birds and reptiles. Whence they came is not known, 
but it is supposed, from Monfalout and Hermenopolis on the 
opposite side of the Nile, An English traveler, M, A. Georges, 
penetrated them after great trouble, and was horrified to find 
within the dark grottoes the remains of a traveler who had 




INTEEIOE OF GROTTOES OF SAMOUN. 



been overcome by famine and exhaustion. He says, " On rais> 
ing our eyes we perceived a horrid spectacle, A corpse still 
covered with its skin was seated on the rounded fragment of a 
rock. Its aspect was hideous. Its arms were outstretched, its 
head thrown back. His neck was bent with the death agony. 
His emaciated body, eyes enlarged, chin contracted, mouth 
twisted and open, hair erect on his head, every feature distorted 
by suffering — these gave him a horrible appearance. 

It made one shudder; involuntarily one thought of one's-self. 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 229 

His shrunken liands dug their nails into the flesh; the chest 
was split open, displaying the lungs and tracheal artery; on 
striking the abdomen, it resounded hoarsely, like a cracked 
drum. 

Undoubtedly this man had been full of vital force when seized 
by death. Undoubtedly he had lost himself in these dark galleries, 
and his lantern having flickered out, he had vainly sought the 
track leading to the upper air, shouting in frenzied tones which 
none could hear; hunger, thirst, fatigue, terror, must have 
driven him nearly mad; he had seated himself on this stone, 
and howled despairingly until death had mercifully come to his 
relief The warm humidity and the bituminous exhalations of 
the cavern had so thoroughly interpenetrated his body, that 
now his skin was black, tanned, imperishable, like that of a 
mummy. It was eight years since the poor wretch had been 
lost. 

On quitting this spot of mournful memory, we turned to the 
left through a corridor whose roof and walls were blackened by 
bituminous vapors, and in which it was possible to walk 
upright. Thousands of bats, attracted by the torches, assailed 
us with a whirr of wings, and considerably impeded oui 
progress. We then arrived at the most interesting part of the 
grottoes : the soil, which gave way beneath our feet, was com- 
posed of the debris of mummies and their swathings; at every 
step arose a black, acrid, nauseating dust, as bitter as a com- 
pound of soot and aloes. "An enormous number of crocodiles of 
all sizes encumber the galleries. Some are black, some corpu- 
lent some gigantic, some not larger than lizards. The human 
mummies and those of birds are side by side with them." The 
travelers did not reach the end of these interminable galleries. 
The heat was intense, and they grew tired of sickening 
impressions. 

The mystery of the Nile regions above Kartoum were unlocked 
to geography and the scientific world more largely by Colonel 
Baker's armed expedition than by any other. We shall soon 
have the pleasure of following him to Lake Albert Nyanza in 
company with his faithful wife, on a journey of exploration, but 



230 EGPYT AND THE NILE. 

before doing so let us see wliat lie did in the Upper Nile valley 
in an armed way and in the name of humanity and that civili- 
zation of which we all are justly proud, and thus complete our 
story of the wonderful river on which Egypt depends for its sus- 
tenance. 

Colonel Baker, on his trip to Albert Nyanza found that at 
least 15,000 Arabs, subjects of the Khedive of Egypt, were 
engaged in the African slave trade, with head-quarters at Kar- 
toum, and mostly in the pay of merchants there. They were 
nothing but cruel brigands, well armed and officered, and equal to 
any outrage on the natives to secure slaves and other booty. 
They sowed the seeds of anarchy throughout Africa, and contri- 
buted to the suspicion, treachery, black-mailing, and every evil 
that cropped out in the chiefs of the African tribes. 

He determined to attack this moral cancer by actual cautery 
at the very root of the evil. These brigands were cowardly, 
and, he thought, could be crushed by a show of force, provided 
it emanated from the Khedive, the only sovereign they acknow- 
ledge. Therefore the Khedive was asked for authority, which 
he conferred, and Baker started having full power to suppress 
the slave trade, to reduce the countries south of Gondokoro, to 
annex them, to open navigation to the lakes under the equator, 
to- establish puilitary statious, to mete out death to all opponents, 
to govern all countries south of Gondokoro. 

He took Lady Baker and a goodly number of English assistants 
along, contracted for provisions for four years, supplied himself 
with mouey, trinkets, tools, and a total of 36 vessels, six of which 
were small steamers, to be increased to 55 vessels and 9 steamers at 
Kartoum. The armed force consisted of 1,645 troops, 200 of 
which were cavalry, and two batteries of artillery. The troops 
were of the forces of the Khedive, half Egyptians and half 
natives of Soudan, the latter colored and by far the best war- 
riors. There is something to be admired in these Soudanese 
soldiers. They are active, wilhng, brave and perfectly submissive 
to kind discipline. They have taste, skill and are accHmated. 
In their tribes they perpetuate traits which must have come 
down from old Egyptian times. Among the wives, especially of 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



231 



chiefs a favorite head dress is one which is supposed to reflect 
the appearance of the honored sphinxes, and it is, to saj the 
least, very becoming. 

Every precaution was taken to have all assemble at Kartoum, 
but the expedition was not popular in Egypt, the boats could 




chief's wife in sphinx head dress. 



not be gotten over the Nile cataracts, and months rolled away 
before the Colonel got ready to start. The fleet of thirty-three 
vessels in which he did start Avere nearly all prepared at Kar- 
toum. On these he embarked 1400 men for his voyage of 1450 
miles to Gondokoro. His cavalry was dismissed as useless, and 



232 . EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

liis body guard was made up of a corps of picked men, fortj- 
six in all, half of wliom were white and half black, that there 
might be no conspiracy among them, and that the one might 
stimulate the other. This guard was put into perfect drill, 
armed with the Snider rifle, and named "The Forty Thieves," 
on account of the propensity they at first manifested. They 
afterwards became models of military discipline. 




THE FOETY THIEVES. 



On February 8, 1870, two small steamers and thirty-one sail- 
ing vessels started up the White Nile from Kartoum, witli 850 
soldiers and six months' provisions. The rest were to follow as 
fast as transports could be supplied. In five days they were at 
Fashoda, in the Shillook country, 118 miles from Kartoum. 
On February 16 they reached the mouth of the Sobat,"684: 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 288 

miles from Kartoum. This stream was then sending down a 
volume of muddy water much larger than the White Nile 
itself. 

They were now in the region of immense flats and boundless 
marshes through which the White Nile soaks and winds for 750 
miles from Gondokoro. The river proper is almost wholly 
obstructed by compressed vegetation known as "sponge," and at 
points this is so thick as to defy the passage of boats with- 
out cutting. Bat the slavers had discovered another route through 
an arm or bayou called the Bahr Giraffe, and this Baker deter- 
mined to take. The Bahr Giraffe proved to be winding, but 
deep enough at first. Like the White Nile, its waters and banks 
abounded in game, the first specimen of the larger kind of which 
proved to be a lion, which bounded off' to cover on the approach 
of the boats. 

By February 25, they were in a mass of floating vegetation 
through which a canal had to be cut. These obstructions now 
became frequent and could only be pierced by means of canals 
and dams. On March 5, the Colonel was roused from a nap on 
the steamer's deck by a shock, followed by a cry " The ship's 
sinking ! " A hippo|)otamus had charged the steamer from the 
bottom, and then had attacked her small boat, cutting two holes 
through her iron plates with his tusks. The diah-beeah was 
only kept from sinking by the aid of the steamer's pumps. 

Obstructions became thicker and canal cutting almost contin- 
uous. The men got sick with fever. The grass swarmed with 
snakes and poisonous ants. The black troops proved hardier and 
more patient than the Egyptians. There were some ducks but 
not enough to supply meat for all. The Colonel discovered a 
hippopotamus some distance off' and ordered a boat to pull for 
him. He disappeared on its approach, but soon reappeared 
about thirty yards away. The Colonel planted a bullet in his 
head. The animal sank, but was found floating near the fleet 
the next morning. The men speedily cut him up and were 
delighted with their supply of fresh meat. 

On March 21, while the men were digging out the steamers 
which had become blocked by the floating masses of vegetation^ 



234 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



they felt something struggling beneath their feet. Scrambling 
away, thej beheld the head of a crocodile protruding through 
the sudd. The black soldiers, armed Avith swords and bill-hooks, 
attacked him, and soon his flesh gladdened the cooking pots of 
the Soudan regiment. 

In thirteen days the fleet only made twelve miles through the 
sudd, although a thousand men were at work all the time 




A CROCODILE MOBBED IN THE SUDD. 

cutting and tugging. The Egyptians fell sick by scores, and 
many died. On March 27, another hippopotamus was killed, 
which gave the men a supply of fresh meat. Several buffaloes 
were also killed. 

After having wasted fifty-one days since leaving Kartoum, it 
was discovered that the Bahr Giraffe became too shallow for 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 235 

further venture. Return was therefore compulsory, much to the 
disgust of the ofS.cers but to the great satisfaction of the troops. 
The whole season was lost, for no other route was practicable 
till there should come a flush of waters. And the return was 
hardly less difl&cult than the upward progress. The canals they 
had cut were filled with vegetable masses and had to be 
re-opened. But they finally reached the White Nile again and 
in time to intercept a Turkish slave party who had been 
raiding the Shillooks. Seventy- one slaves were found closely 
stowed away in their boat and eighty-four concealed on shore, 
under guard. These were liberated, and both slaves and captors 
informed that slavery had been abolished by the Khedive's 
order. 

The party sailed down the White Nile to its junction with 
the Sobat and there, on high, hard ground, prepared a perma- 
nent camp — really a little town with houses and workshops. 
The acquaintance of the Shillooks was made and cordial rela- 
tions established. They brought their vegetables to camp to 
sell, and proved very kind and useful. But they had been 
greatly demoralized by the Arab kidnappers, as had all the 
tribes on both sides of the river. 

Soon after they were stationed here a sail was observed 
bearing down the river. It proved to be that of the boat from 
which the slaves had been liberated up near the mouth of the 
Bahr Giraffe. It was ordered to stop and found to be loaded 
with corn. But there was an awkward smell about the fore- 
castle. An officer drew a ramrod from a rifle and began to 
poke the corn. A cry came from beneath and a wooly head 
protruded. A woman was dragged forth by the arm. Then 
the planking was broken and the hold found full of slaves, 
packed like sardines in a barrel. Orders were given to imme- 
diately unload the vessel. One hundred and fifty slaves, many 
of them manacled, were taken out of that small, stench-ridden 
place. The slaves were released and the officers and crew of 
the boat put in irons. The former consisted of men and women. 
All were given freedom papers, and allowed the privilege of 
returning home. Those who did not wish to go might remain 



236 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



and they wonld be treated well. The women niight marry the 
soldiers if they chose. Strange to say they all selected soldier 
husbands, and there would have been a grand wedding day 
after the African fashion, if Colonel Baker had not hmited the 
engagements to a few at a time. 

Land was cleared around the encampment, and all hands kept 
to work at mechanics, farming, hunting, etc. Meanwhile Colone 
Baker went to Kartoum with his steamers and a fleet oi sail 




RELEASE OF THE SLAVES. 

boats for a supply of corn. He then returned and prospected 
up the White Nile only to find it hopelessly obstructed, unless 
a special expedition were sent up to cut away "the sponge" and 
other vegetable obstructions. He also found out that most of 
the leaders of the very brigands he was sent out to capture 
were in league with the home authorities, and that they had 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



287 



territory assigned them in wliicli to operate, for whicli privilege 
they paid good round sums annually. He was therefore in the 
dilemma of openly serving a government which was secretly 
opposing him. 

By December 1, 1870, at which time the Upper Nile would 
be in flood and the season propitious, he expected to start again 
from his camp at Tewfikeeyah for Gondokoro. But it was 



t 






^^fero* r 




NIGHT ATTACK ON THE BOATS BY A HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



December 11 before his full fleet of twenty-six vessels got 
off. Not daring to risk the "White Nile, he turned off again 
through the Bahr-Giraffe, which he found more open. Never- 
theless canals had to be frequently cut through the vegetable 
obstructions, and nearly the same incidents as the year befoie 
were repeated. When they arrived at the shallows, there \ia^ 



23S EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

not water enough and tlie boats had to be dragged over the 
bars, after discharging part of their cargoes. 

Finally the White Nile was reached again, and all were 
thankful. Their last adventure in the Bafr Giraffe was with a 
hippopotamus which, in the night, dashed furiously on the small 
boats. The zinc boat was loaded with flesh. With one blow 
he demolished this. In another instant he seized the dingy 
in his immense jaws, and the crash of splintered wood told of 
its complete destruction. He then attacked, with a blind fury, 
the steam launch, and received shot after shot. Eetreating 
for a time, he returned to the attack with even greater fury, 
when he received a ball in the head which keeled him over. 
He was evidently a character of the worst description for his 
body was literally covered with scars and wounds received in 
fights with bulls of his own species. 

By March 10, all the vessels were afloat on the White Nile, 
and their further upward journey began. In a month (April 
15) they were all safely at Gondokoro, 330 miles from Bahr 
Giraffe junction and 1400 from Karto^im. Gondokoro was much 
broken up and nearly depopulated. The Austrian Missionaries 
were gone and the place given over to raiders and kidnappers. 
The Bari tribes, great fighters and hunters, were in the employ 
of the Arab slave dealers, and Gondokoro was their head- 
quarters. They received Colonel Baker coldly, for though they 
did not want to be slaves themselves, they had no objections 
to lending their aid to the Arab brigands to take slaves 
from other tribes,- provided they were well paid for it. 

A military station was founded a^ 'rondokoro, on high 
ground, and as the river was now too low to proceed further, 
Baker's army went into permanent quarters. Ground was 
planted in vegetables and corn, houses were built, boats were 
repaired, and an air of business pervaded the place. The Bari 
never fully reconciled themselves to Baker's presence, preferring 
no government at all. They are a pastoral people, possessing 
large herds of cattle and living well. The men are tall and 
powerful, and the women not unprepossessing. But they have been 
so badly demorahzed by the slave dealers as to be hostile 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



23^ 



to white men and to every form of restraint. Thev were 
clearly in with the brigands to starve Baker's expedition out 
and force it to return to Kartoum. 

Baker formally annexed all this country to Egypt, and 
promulgated a code of laws for its government. This brought 




A SOUDAN WARKIOR. 



him into actual war with all the Bari tribes and collisions 
were frequent, in which the natives were generally worsted. 
There were enemies in the water too, for the Nile at Gondokoro 
literally swarms with crocodiles. One of these animals tore an 



240 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



arm off a sailor, and another seized and devoured a washer 
woman who went into the water to do her washing. Many 
were killed by the men. Once the Colonel shot a very large 
one, measuring twelve feet six inches long. It was supposed to 
be dead and the men, having fastened a rope around its neck, 
began to pull it up the bank. It suddenly came to life and 
opened its huge jaws. The men ran off in fright, and could 
not be induced to return till another bullet was lodged in its 
okull. 

The "Forty Thieves" were now a most -efficient part of 
Colonel Baker's forces. The Egyptians had been gradually 
eliminated, so that now nearly all were blacks from the Soudan. 
They had ceased to steal, and were models of bravery and sol- 
dierly drill and obedience. They became good shots and grew 
to know their superiority over the native spearmen. The entire, 
force at Gondokoro numbered 1100 soldiers and 400 sailors. 
They were constantly menaced by the Bari, and never slept 
except under guard. 

At length the various hostile tribes formed a coalition and, 
inflamed by the slave dealers, made a combined night attack. 
They were received so hotly that they soon dispersed, with 
the loss of many men. In this instance the fire of the "Forty 
Thieves" was most effective, and the natives declared they were 
more afraid of them than all the rest of the army. Watching 
from this time on was unceasing, and various offensive expedi- 
tions were fitted out whose business was to subdue the tribes 
by piece meal and make them acquainted with the new authori- 
ties and with the fact that dealing in slaves could no longer be 
tolerated on the White Nile nor in any country which might 
be annexed to Egypt. 

Baker had found out to his regret that he could not estab- 
lish monthly boat service between Gondokoro and Kartoum, as 
he had intended, owing to the formidable obstacles in the 
White Nile. Disease carried off his men and horses. A 
drought blighted the gardens and fields around his camp. By 
October, 1871, a conspiracy to desert and return to Kartoum 
cropped out, which involved all his troops except the "Forty 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



241 



Thieves." To prevent this the vessels were run up the river 
on a prospecting tour. They made the discovery that corn in 
plenty existed in the Bari regions beyond. But it could not be 
bought. Whom these cunning natives could not drive out 
they were bound to starve out. The corn had therefore to be 
taken. It was a great relief to the garrison to know that they 
were not far from a land of abundance. 




NIGHT ATTACK ON GONDOKORO STATION. 



Still Colonel Baker thought it prudent to weed put his dis- 
contented forces and especially to get rid of the long list of 
women, children and sick who were now a burden. He there- 
fore sent thirty vessels back to Kartoum in November. Besides 
a goodly supply of corn, they took along 1100 persons, leaving 
him with a force of about 550 soldiers and sailors. With this 
16 



242 



EYGPT AND THE NILE. 



small force lie was left to subdue hostile tribes, suppress tbe slave 
trade and annex the country. It seemed to him that the slave 
dealers had gained their point and defeated the object of the 
expedition. 

Yet he persisted. Small land and river expeditions were sent 
out in all directions for the purpose of subjugating natives and 




ELEPHANTS IN TROUBLE. 



crushing slave parties. It was on one of these that a herd of 
eleven bull elephants was seen from the deck of the vessel. Men 
were landed who surrounded them and drove them into the 
river, Thej swam to the opposite side, but the banks were 
high and the water deep. They were within rifle range from 
the vessel, and began tearing down the banks with their tusks 
in order to climb up. Fire was opened on them, which kept 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 243 

them in a state of confusion. At one time several mounted tlie 
bank, but it gave way and precipitated tliem all into the water. 
At last one got on firm ground and exposed his flank. A ball 
struck him behind the shoulder which sent him into the river. 
His struggles brought him within twenty yards of the vessel. 
Another bullet went crashing through his brain and despatched 
him. Another one was killed before the ammunition was exhausted. 
The carcasses of both became the prize of the men, and strange 
to say, many of the hostile natives, attracted to the spot by the 
firing, professed to be very friendly in order that they might 
share the rich elephant steaks. They preferred this meat to that 
of their own cattle, of which they had plenty. 

By November, Colonel Baker called in all his expeditions. 
H'e had established peace throughout a wide section, and set 
free the slaves captured by several large parties. The war with 
the Baris was virtually over. But the slave dealers had only 
changed their base of operations. They had gone further south 
and would there stir up the same trouble they had incited 
among the Bari.» 

When all had re-assembled at Gondokoro, preparations were 
set on foot for a movement further south, the general course to 
be the line of the White Mle. While these were going on, 
those who had leisure devoted themselves to hunting, and 
studying the animal, mineral and vegetable resources. It was a 
country of great natural wealth. Iron and salt abounded. 
Tobacco, beans, corn, hemp and cotton could easily be raised. 
Nearly every tropical fruit was found in abundance. There was 
good fishing in the rivers, and plenty of ducks and other small 
game in the lakes and ponds. Every now and then the hunters 
had an adventure with hippopotami, whose attacks were always 
dangerous. Elephants were very plenty in all the region about 
Gondokoro. They saw them singly and in herds, and had fine 
opportunity to study their habits. They are fond of the fruit 
of the "Keglik'' tree, which resembles a date. If the tree be 
small they quickly tear it up by the roots and eat the fruit at 
leisure. If it be large — and they frequently grow to a diameter 
of three feet — the animal butts his forehead against the tree till 



244 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



it quivers in every brancli and showers its fruit down upon tne 
delighted animal. 

On January 23, 1872, the expedition was off, a garrison hav- 
ing been left at Gondokoro. Its final destination was the 
Unyoro country, just north of Victoria Nyanza and east of 
Albert Nyanza. We will hear of all these names again and 
become familiar with them. The expedition started under excel- 




SHAKING FEUIT. 



lent auspices, except as to numbers. The "Forty Thieves" were 
staunch and brave, and all the Sudani soldiers were in good 
spirits. The Colonel's light steamer led the way, followed by 
the heavier vessels. This gave him fine opportunity to prospect 
the country and enjoy occasional hunts. The mountains of 
Eegiaf abut on the White Nile, about fifty or sixty miles 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



245 



above Gondokoro. In tlieir midst is a fine cataract and much 
beautiful scenery. The geological formation is very peculiar. 
One curiosity was noted in the shape of an immense Syenite 
slab, forty-five feet long and as many wide, resting like a table 
on a hard clay pedestal. Tliis stone is reverenced by the Baris, 
and they think that any person who sleeps under it will surely 
die. 




TABLE KOCK AT EEGIAF. 



The vessels could not go beyond the Eegiaf cataract, and a 
journey overland to the Lahore country was projected. But all 
attempts to employ native carriers failed. The soldiers of 
Baker's own force refused to draw the loaded carts. There was 
nothing left but to organize a small, light-armed and light- 
loaded force, and try the land journey in this way. This force 
started in February. The guide was old Lokko, a rainmaker 



246 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



of Labore. Mrs. Baker went along, accompanied by a train of 
female carriers. They drove a herd of 1000 cows and 500 
sheep. The country was thickly populated and teemmg with 
plenty. The Labore country was reached, after a sixty mile 
tramp, and they were in the midst of friends— the hated and 
hostile Baris having been left behind. Carriers could now be 
had in abundance and the journeys were rapid to the Asua, the 
largest tributary of the White Nile. 




NATIVE DANCE. 



Here was a grand country. There were high mountains and 
(fertile valleys, fine forests and plenty of game. The march now 
lay toward Fatiko, the capital of the Shooli. It lies at the base 
of the Shooa mountains, amid the most picturesque scenery, 85 
miles from Labore and 185 from Gondokoro. A grand entry 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 247 

into the town was made. The " Forty Thieves " and the rest of 
the troops were put into complete marching order. The band was 
ordered to play. There was a kind of dress parade and sham fight, 
mingled with drum and bugle sounds and the blare of the band. 
The manoeuvres pleased the natives very much. They are fond 
of music, and as the troops reached a camping spot, the women 
of the village clustered around, assumed dancing attitudes, and 
in nature's costume indulged in one of their characteristic fan- 
danges] the old women proving even more inveterate dancers 
than the young. 

Baker established a military station at Fatiko, leaving a 
detachment of 100 out of his 212 men. On March 18, 1872, he 
started for Unyoro. Though the intermediate country is rich in 
vegetation, it is uninhabited except by tropical animals, and is a 
common hunting ground for the tribes on either side. The 
Unyoros live east and north of Victoria Nyanza Lake. They 
are a numerous people, but not so stalwart as the Labores 
or Schooli. Their soil is rich, and tobacco grows to an immense 
size. Their town of Masindi, twenty miles east of lake Albert 
Nyanza, whose waters can be seen from the summits of the 
mountains, was reached by the expedition on April 25. The 
country was placed under the protection of the Khedive, and the 
chief Kabba-Rega, son of Kamrasi, was made acquainted with the 
fact that hereafter slavery was prohibited. This tribe had been at 
times heavily raided by slave hunters, and their pens in different 
parts of the country were even then full of captives — probably 
1000 in all. The natives themselves, as is usual with African 
tribes, only saw harm in this when the captives were of their 
own tribe. " Steal from everybody but from me," seems to be 
their idea of the eighth commandment. 

The expedition remained for some time in Masindi and 
attempted to establish a permanent military station. But the 
slave hunters seemed to have more power over the natives than 
Baker with his drilled forces and show of Egyptian authority. 
The chief and his subjects grew suspicious and finally hostile. 
They attacked Baker, and the result of the fight was their defeat 
and the destruction of their town by fire. Such an atmosphere 



248 



EGYPT AND THE NILE, 



was not congenial to peace and regular authority. Therefore a 
retreat was ordered toward Rionga on the Victoria Nile. But 
how make it? Every surrounding was hostile. Porters could 
be had with difficulty. Worst of all, provisions were exhausted. 
At this critical moment Mrs. Baker came to the rescue with a 
woman's wit and prudence. She had been laying up a reserve of 
flour when it was plenty, and now she brought forth what was 
deemed a supply for several days. 




ATTACK BY AMBUSCADE 

On Jane 14, 1872, the station at Masindi was destroyed, and 
the expedition, started on its backward journey amid hostile 
demonstrations by the natives. The journey was almost like a 
running battle. Day attacks were frequent, and scarcely a night 
passed without an attempt at a surprise. The "Fortv Thieves" 



EGPYT AND THE NILE. 249 

became the main-staj of tlie expedition. They were ever ou 
the alert, and proved very formidable with their trusty Snider 
rifles. They grew to know where ambuscades were to be 
expected, and were quick to dispose themselves so as to make 
defence complete or first attack formidable. They never fired 
without an object, ^nd only when they had dead aim. And 
they knew the value of cover against the lances of the enemy. 
Their losses were therefore small, while they played havoc with 
the enemy, seldom failing to rout them, or to conduct an hon- 
orable retreat. 

At length they struck the Victoria Nile at - Foweera, fifteen 
miles below Eionga Islands. Here they built a stockade, and 
began to build canoes with which to cross the river which was 
500 yards wide. Word was sent up to Eionga. The chief 
came and proved friendly. He informed the Colonel of the 
plot between Kabba Eega and the Arab slave hunters to drive 
him out of the country, and declared that he would be faithful 
to the Khedive'^ authority. Whereupon Baker declared him 
chief instead of Kabba, and endowed him with full authority 
over the natives, in the name of the Khedive. Unyoro thus 
had a new king. He was left with a compliment of Baker's 
small army as a guard and nucleus, and the Colonel started 
down the river in canoes for his post at Fatiko. His small 
garrison, left there, received him gladly, but scarcely was tLe 
reception over when an attack was made upon it by the slave 
hunters. They were well prepared and determined. From 
behind huts and other places of safety they began to pick off 
the soldiers, and a charge of the "Forty Thieves" was ordered. 
It was brilliantly executed, and resulted in the dislodgment of 
the enemy and their pursuit for many miles with great slaughter 
and the capture of many prisoners, among whom were some 
135 of their slaves. 

This battle resulted in the driving out of Abou Saood, the 
leader of the slave hunters, and the man who had rented the 
whole country from the authorities at Kartoum for the purpose cf 
brigandage. He went to Cairo to complain of the treatment he 
had received at the hands of Baker and his party, and actually 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



251 



circulated the report that he and Mrs. Baker had been killed 
on the head-waters of the Nile. 

A strong fortification was built at Fatiko, which was finished 
by December, and reinforcements were sent for from Gondokoro. 
It was the hunting season, and many expeditions were organized 
for the capture of game, in which the natives joined with a 
hearty good will. Besides the rifle in skilled hands, the net of 







+ J. ft? 









AFFECTIONATE RESULTS OF FREEDOM. 

the natives for the capture of antelope and smaller game was 
much relied on, and once all enjoyed the magnificent sight of a 
tropical prairie on fire, with its leaping game of royal propor- 
tions, to be brought down almost at will, provided the hunter 
was not demoralized with its number and size. 

While at Fatiko, an embassy came from King Mtesa of the 



252 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

Uganda professing friendship and offering an army of 6000 men 
for, — he did not know what, but to punish any natives who 
might appear to be antagonistic, especially Kabba Eega., 

By March, 1873, reinforcements from Gondokoro arrived in 
pitiable plight. Baker's forces were now 620 strong. He re-in- 
forced his various military stations. Then he liberated the 
numerous slaves the upward troops had taken from the slave 
hunters. Most of these were women and back in their native 
country. They accepted liberty with demonstrations of joy, 
rushed to the officers and men on whom they lavished hugs 
and kisses, and danced away in a delirium of excitement. 

Colonel Baker's time would expire in April. Therefore he 
timed his return to Gondokoro so as to be there by the first 
of the month, 1873. The whole situation was changed. There 
was scarcely a vestige of the neat station he had left. The slave 
dealers had carried things with a high hand, and had demoralized 
the troops. Filth and disorder had taken the place of cleanhness 
and discipline. Things were put to rights by May, and on the 
25 of that month Baker started down the Nile, leaving his 
" Forty Thieves " as part of the Gondokoro garrison. 

On June 29, Colonel Baker, Mrs. Baker and the officers of 
-this celebrated expedition arrived at Kartoum, and reached Cairo 
on August 24, whence they sailed for England. 

He concludes his history thus : — " The first steps in establish- 
ing the authority of a new government among tribes hitherto sav- 
age and intractable were of necessity accompanied by military 
operations. War is inseparable from annexation, and the law of 
force, resorted to in self-defence, was absolutely indispensable to 
prove the superiority of the power that was eventually to govern. 
The end justified the means. 

"At the commencement of the expedition I had felt that the 
object of the enterprise — 'the suppression of the slave trade' — 
was one for which I could confidently ask a blessing. 

" A firm belief in Providential support has not been unrewarded. 
In the midst of sickness and malaria we had strength ; from 
acts of treachery we were preserved unharmed; in personal 
encounters we remained unscathed. In the end, every opposition 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 



253 



was overcome : hatred and subordination yielded to discipline and 
order. A paternal government extended its protection through 
lands hitherto a field for anarchy and slavery. The territorv 
within my rule was purged from the slave trade. The natives 
of the great Shooli tribe, relieved from their oppressors, clung to 




GOEDON AS MANDARIN. 



the protecting government. The White Nile, for a distance of 
1,600 miles from Kartonm to Central Africa, was cleansed from 
the abomination of a traffic which had hitherto sulhed its waters. 



254 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

"Every cloud liad passed away, and the term of my office 
expired in peace and sunshine. In this result, I humbly traced 
God's blessing." 

Baker's picture is much overdrawn. The situation in the 
Soudan has never been promising. In 1874, Colonel Jamer 
Gordon was made Governor General of all these equatorial pro- 
vinces which Baker had annexed to Egypt. Gordon was a brave 
enthusiast, who had acquired the title of "Chinese" Gordon^ 
because he had organized an army at Shanghai, and, as Briga- 
dier, helped the Chinese Government to put down a dangerous 
rebellion. He had received the order of Mandarin, had infinite 
faith in himself, and a wonderful faculty for controlling the 
unruly elements in oriental countries. He did some wonderful 
work in the Soudan in suppressing the slave-trade, disarming 
the Bashi-Bazouks, reconciling the natives, and preventing the 
Government at Cairo from parcelling out these equatorial dis- 
tricts to Arab slave dealers. He worked hard, organized quite 
an army, and had a power in the Soudan which was imperial, 
and which he turned to good uses. But in 1879, he diftered 
with the Khedive and resigned. Then England and France 
deposed the Khedive, Ismial, and set up Tewfik, under pretext 
of financial reform. But these two countries could not agree as 
to a financial policy. France withdrew, and left England to 
work out the Egyptian problem. The problem is all in a nut- 
shell. English ascendancy in Egypt is deemed necessary to pro- 
tect the Suez Canal and her water way to India. For this she 
bombarded and reduced Alexandria in 1882 and established a 
suzerainty over Egypt — Turkey giving forced assent, and France 
refusing to join in the mix. 

The new Khedive was helpless — purposely so. England 
planted within Egypt an army of occupation and took virtual 
directorship of her institutions. But the provinces all around, 
especially those newly annexed by Baker, revolted. Their Mos- 
lem occupants would not acknowledge English interference and 
sovereignty. Soudan was in rebellion both east and west of the 
Nile. England sent several small armies toward the interior and 
fought many doubtful battles. At length the project of reduc- 



EGYPT AND THE NILE. 255 

mg the Soudan was given over. But how to get the garrisons 
out of the leading strongholds in safety became a great prob- 




l^/^lyO a^^-'^^V'^'V^ J 



lem. That at Kartoum was the largest, numbering several 
hundred, with a large contingent of women and children. It 
would be death for any of these garrisons to leave their fortifi- 
cations and try boats down the Nile, or escape by camel back 



256 EGYPT AND THE NILE. 

across the desert. Yet England was committed to tlie duty (A' 
relieving tbem. 

The rebellion was under the lead of the Mahdi, a Mos- 
lem prophet, who plaimed to be raised up to save his people 
and religion. His followers were numerous and desperate. Gor- 
don thought the old influence he had acquired over these people 
when Governor General of the Soudan, would avail him for the 
purpose of getting the forlorn garrisons away in safety. ' He was 
therefore re-appointed Governor General in 1884, and started 
with Colonel Stewart for Kartoum. There they were besieged 
for ten months by the Mahdi's troops, and there Gordon was 
killed (January 27, 1885) by the enemy, and all his garrison 
surrendered or were killed. The English sent an army of 8,000 
men up the Nile to rescue Gordon, and part of it got nearly to 
Kartoum, when word of the sad fate that had befallen the garri- 
son reached it. The expedition retreated, and since then the 
Soudan and Upper Nile have been given over to the old Arab 
and slave stealing elsment. 



^W^lf, OF TpE ILL 



BY reversing the map of North. America — turning it upside 
down — you get a good river map of Africa. The Missis- 
sippi, rising in a lal^e system and flowing into the gulf of 
Mexico, becomes the Nile flowing into the Mediterranean — both long 
water-ways. The St. Lawrence, rising in and draining the most 
magnificent lake system in the world, from Huron to Ontario, 
will represent the Congo, rising in and draining a lake sj^stem 
which may prove to be of equal extent and beauty. Both are 
heavy, voluminous streams, full of rapids and majestic falls. The 
Columbia Eiver will represent the Zambesi, flowing into the 
Indian Ocean. 

Civilized man has, perhaps, known the African Continent the 
longest, yet he knows it least. Its centre has been a mystery 
to him since the earliest ages. If the Egyptian geographer 
traced the first chart, and the astronomer there first noted the 
motion of sun, moon and stars ; if on Nile the first mariner 
tried his bark on water; it was but yesterday that the distant 
and hidden sources of the great stream were revealed, and it is 
around these sources that the geographer and naturalist have now 
the largest field for discovery, and in their midst that the traveller 
and hunter have the finest fields for romance and adventure. 

The Mississippi has in three centuries become as familiar as 
the Ehine. The Nile, known always, has ever nestled its head 
in Africa's unknown Lake Region, safe because of mangrove 
swamp and arid waste. But now that the secret of its sources 
is out, and with it the fact of a high and delightful inner 
Africa, full of running streams and far stretching lakes, of rich 
tropical verdure and abundant animal life, is the dream a fool- 
ish one that here are the possibilities of an empire whose com- 
merce, agriculture, wealth and enlightenment shall make it as 
powerful and bright as its past has been impotent and dark? 
17 (257) 



258 SOURCES or the nile. 

We have known Africa under the delusion that it was a des- 
ert with a fringe of vegetation on the sea coast and in the val- 
ley of the Nile. "Africs burning sands" and her benighted 
races are the beginning and end of our school thoughts of the 
" Dark Continent." True, her Sahara is the most unmitigated 
desert in the world, running from the Atlantic Ocean clear to 
the Tigris in Asia — for the Eed Sea is only a gulf in its midst. 
True, there is another desert in the far South, almost as blank. 
These, with their drifting sands, long caravans, ghastly skeletons, 
fierce Bedouin wanderers, friendly oases, have furnished descrip- 
tions well calculated to interest and thrill. But they are by no 
means the Africa of the future. They are .as the shell of an 
e<yg, whose life and wonder are in the centre. 

There are many old stories of African exploration. One is to 
the effect that a Phoenician vessel, sent out by Pharaoh JSTecho, 
left the Eed Sea and in three years appeared at the Straits of 
Gibraltar, having circumnavigated the Continent. But it required 
the inducement of commercial gain to fix its boundaries exactly, 
to give it place on the map of the world. Not until a pathway 
to the east became a commercial necessity, and a short "North 
West Passage" a brilliant hope, did the era of Arctic adventure 
begin. The same necessity, and the same hope for a "South 
East Passage," led the Portuguese to try all the western coast 
of Africa for a short cut to the Orient. For seventy years they 
coasted in vain, till in 1482 Diaz rounded the "Cape of Storms," 
afterwards called CaDe of Good Hope. Twelve years later 
VasGO de Gama ran the first European vessel into the ports of 
India. 

The first permanent stream found by the Portuguese on going 
down the Atlantic, or west, coast of Africa was the Senegal 
Eiver. They thought it a western outlet of the Nile. Here 
Europe first saw tliat luxuriant, inter-tropical Africa which 
differed so much from the Africa of traditions and school books. 
They knew that something else than a sandy waste was neces- 
sary to support a river hke the Senegal. They had been used 
to seeing and reading of the tawny Bedouin wanderers, but 
south of this river they found a black, stout, well made people, 



SOUBCES OF THE NILE. 259 

who in contradistinction to the thin, tawny, short Moors of the 
desert, became Black Moors — "black-a-moors." And in contrast 
with the dry, sandj^, treeless plains of Sahara thej actually 
found a country verdant, woody, fertile and rolling. i 

Unhappily the wrongs of the negro began with his first con- 
tact with Europeans. The Portuguese took him home as a 
specimen. He then became a slave. The moral sense of 
Europe was still medieval. Her maritime nations fastened like 
leeches on the west coast of Africa and sucked her life blood. 
Millions of her children were carried off" to Brazil, the West 
Indies, the Spanish Main, and the British colonies in North 
America and elsewhere. Much as we abhor the slave system 
of Africa as carried on at present by Turkish dealers, it is no 
more inhuman than that practiced for three hundred years by 
the Christian nations of Europe. 

This slave trade was fatal to discovery and research in Africa, 
such as was warranted by the knowledge which the Portuguese 
brought, and which is now warranted, and being realized too, 
by the recent revelations of Stanley, Livingstone and others. 
The slaver could Aiot, because he dared not, venture far from 
his rendezvous on the river or in the lagoon where his victims 
were collected. He kept his haunts a secret, and closed the doors 
on all who would be likely to interfere with his gains. Not 
until slavery received its death blow among civilized nations 
did they begin to set permanent feet, in a spirit of scientific 
and christian inquirj^, on the interior soil of Africa, and to map 
out its blank spaces with magnificent lakes and rivers. Then 
began to come those stirring narratives of travel by Mungo 
Park, Landers and Clapperton, who tracked the course of the 
Niger Eiver. Then began that northern march of sturdy and 
permanent Dutch and English colonists who are carrying their 
cultivation and civilization from the Southern Cape to the 
Kalihari Desert, the southern equivalent of the Sahara. Then 
also a Liberian Free State became possible, founded and ruled 
by the children of those who had been ruthlessly stolen from 
their happy equatorial homes and sold into bondage in the 
United States. 



260 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

Between the two sterile tracts of Africa lies the real Conti- 
nent. All the coast lands are a shell. Egypt is but a strip on 
either side the Nile. Central Africa — the Lake regions which 
feed the Nile, Congo and Zambesi — is a great and grand section, 
where nature has been prodigal in all her gifts, and which 
invites a civilization as unique and strong as its physical features. 
We may wonder at the strange things revealed by Arctic 
research, but here are unrivalled chains of lake and river com- 
munication, and powerful states with strange peoples and customs, 
of which the last generation never dreamed. No spot of all 
the earth invites to such adventure as this, and none profiteth so 
much in the revelations Avhich add to science and which may 
be turned to account in commerce and the progress of civiliza- 
tion. 

We have read the roll of names rendered immortal by efforts 
to reach the two Poles of the earth. Africa's list of explorers 
contains the names of Livingstone, Gordon, Cameron, Speke, 
Grant, Burton, Baker, Schweinfurth, Stanley, Kirk, Van der 
Decken, Elton, Pinto, Johnston, and others, some of whom have 
laid down their lives in the cause of science, and every one 
recalling memories of gigantic difficulties grappled with, of dan- 
gers boldly encountered, of sufferings bravely borne, of great 
achievements performed, and all within the space of twenty 
years. 

Before entering these Lake Regions of Africa to see what 
they contain, it is due to the past to recall the fact that an old 
chart of the African Continent was published at Rome in 1591, 
which contains a sj^stem of equatorial lakes and rivers. It 
shows the Blue Nile coming out of Abyssinia, and the White 
Nile taking its rise in two great lakes under the equator — the 
Victoria Nyanza of Speke, and the Albert Nyanza of Baker. 
Due south from Albert Nyanza is another lake which is the 
equivalent of Tanganyika, and this is not only connected with 
the Congo but Avith the Nile and Zambesi. Cameron and Stan- 
ley have both shown that Tanganyika sends its surplus waters, 
if any it has, to the Congo, and Livingstone has proven that 
the head waters of these two mighty rivers are intimately con- 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 261 

nected. Is this ancient map a happj guess, or does it present 
facts which afterwards fell into oblivion? Ere the slave trade 
put its ban between the coast traders and the dwellers of the 
interior, ere Portuguese influence ceased in Abyssinia, and the 
missions of the Congo left off' communications with Eome, did 
these unknown regions yield their secrets to the then existing 
civilization? May not this geographic scrap, dug from among 
the rubbish of the Vatican library, be the sole relic now extant 
of a race of medieval explorers the fame of whose adventures 
has fallen dumb, and whose labors have to be gone over again? 

The map of Africa, used in our school days, had a blank 
centre. No geographer had soiled, its white expanse with lines 
and figures. It was the "happy hunting ground" of conjecture 
and fancy. The Zambesi and Congo were short stumps of 
rivers, with perhaps a dotted line to tell what was not known. 
When two traders — the Pombeiros — passed from Angola on the 
west to the Pacific, in the beginning of the present century, 
and wrote how they had crossed a hundred rivers, visited the 
courts of powerful negro kings, traversed countries where the 
people had made considerable progress in the industries and 
arts, their story, like that of other pioneers, was discredited and 
their information treated with contemptuous neglect. 

But about thirty years ago the modern world was startled 
and gratified with its first glimpse at the Lake Regions of 
Africa. In 1849, Livingstone, Oswell and Murray, after weary 
marching across the Kalihari, or southern, desert, stood on the 
margin of Lake JSTgami, the most southerly and first discovered 
of the great chain of equatorial lakes. They expected to find 
only a continuation of desert sands and desert hardships, but, lo ! 
a mighty expanse of waters breaks on their vision, worth more 
as a discovery than a dozen nameless tribes or rivers. What 
could it mean? Was this the key to that mysterious outpour 
of rivers which, flowing north, east, and west, blended their 
waters with the Mediterranean, the Pacific and Atlantic? The 
discoverer could go no further then, but fancy was excited with 
the prospect of vague and limitless possibilities and speculation 
became active in every scientific centre. Back again into the 



262 SOUECES OF THE NILE. 

wilderness the discoverer is drawn, and a score of others plunge 
into the unknown to share his fame. 

From the discovery of Ngami, a broad sheet into which the 
Cubango, south of the Zambesi and parallel with it, expands ere 
it plunges into the great central Salt Pan (a Great Salt Lake), 
may be dated the revival of modern curiosity in the secrets of 
the African Continent. 

In the Portuguese colonies of Abyssinia, there were rumors 
that a great lake existed north of the Zambesi, called Maravi 
or Nyassa. Its outflow was unknown, and the theory was that 
it was one of a long chain which fed the Nile. They thought 
no other stream was worthy of such a source, but they did not 
ask, whence then the mightier volumes that pour through the 
Congo and Zambesi? Others said the Nile finds ample sources 
in the "Mountains of the Moon." Nobody had seen these, but 
old Ptolemy, the geographer, had said so two thousand years ago, 
and hundreds of years before, Herodotus had written, in obedience 
to the dictates of two Egyptian priests, that "two conical hills, 
Crophi and Mophi, divided the unfathomable waters of the Nile 
from those which ran into Ethiopia." 

This is all the information we had of the sources of the 
Nile down to 1863 — at least of the White, or Eastern, branch of 
the Nile. Then it was that Speke and Grant, coming from the 
south, and Baker following the valley of the river toward the 
equator, almost met on the spot which contains its true sources. 
Poor Livingstone could not be made to see the merit of their 
discovery. He clung to the story of Herodotus, amplified by 
that of Ptolemy, which fixed the head of the great river in two 
lakes some ten degrees south of the Equator. Livingstone 
believed that the high water-shed between the Zambesi and Con- 
go would pass for the Mountains of the Moon, and that in the 
Lualaba, flowing northward (the Lualaba afterwards turned out 
to be the Congo, as Stanley showed) he had the track of the 
true Nile. Following this will-o-the-wisp into the swamps of 
Lake Bangweolo, he met a lonely and lingering death. 

To look on the sources of the Nile was ever a wish and 
dream. The conquerors of Egypt, at whatever time and of 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 263 

whatever nation, longed to unravel the problem of its fountains. 
In the days when a settled population extended far into Nubia 
and a powerful state flourished at Meroe, near the junction of 
the White and Blue Nile, the tramp of armed hosts in search 
of the " mythical fountains," favorite haunt of Jove himself when 
he wished seclusion, often resounded in the deep African interior. 
Sesostris, the first king who patronized map making, made 
attempts to discover these springs. Alexander the Great, Cam- 
byses the Persian, and the Eoman Csesars, were inspired with 
the same wish. Julius Caesar said he would give up civil war 
could he but look on the sources of the Nile. Nero sent out a 
vast exploring party who told of cataracts and marshes which 
compelled their return. These expeditions were formidable. 
They returned empty handed as to science, but generally loaded 
with spoils of conquest. The idea of a solitary explorer, with 
his life in his hand and good will toward all in his heart, 
encountering all the perils and privations of African travel for 
pure love of knowledge, is wholly a modern conception. 

Let mention be made here of Ismail Pasha, ex-viceroy of 
Egypt. To the practices of an oriental despot he added the 
spirit of a man of modern science. To him, more than to any 
other man, do we owe a complete solution of the mystery of 
the Nile. He plunged Egypt into inextricable debt, he ground 
his people with taxes, but he introduced to them the light of 
western knowledge, he granted the concessions which built the 
Suez Canal, he sought out and annexed the sources of the Nile. 
For twenty years European pioneers and explorers, in his pay 
or under his protection, worked their way southward, mapping 
lakes and rivers, founding settlements, capturing slave gangs, 
until the entire |Nile Yalley either acknowledges Egypt or is 
open to commerce and civilization, unless forsooth the recent 
Soudanese protest, made by the fanatical El Mahdi and his 
followers, should prove to be more persistent and better sus- 
tained than now seems probable. 

Our trip up the Nile to Assouan, or the first cataract, past 
the silent shapes of the temples, sphinxes and pyramids, sur- 
rounded by sights and sounds of Oriental life, was as pastime. 



264 SOUECES OF THE NILE. 

But now tlie holiday journey ends, and we are face to face with, 
the reahties and hardships of a Nubian desert. The Nile is no 
longer verdant on either side. The sands, dry and barren, form 
its shores. But that is not all. You skirt it to Korosko amid 
diificulties, and there you are at its great bend. If you followed 
it now to the next place of importance, Abu-Hammed, you 
would have to travel nearly 600 miles. The waters are broken 
by falls and the country is desolate. No one thinks of the 
journey, unless compelled to make it. The course is that of 
the caravans across the Korosko desert to Abu-Hammed. It is 
400 miles of dreary waste, and calculated to burn out of the 
traveller any romance he may have entertained of Nubian 
adventure. Day marching over this desert is. impossible at 
certain seasons. Night is given up to the uneasy motion of 
camel riding and the monotony of a desert tramp. 

Do not think the ground is even. Here and there it is 
broken by wady's or gulches, and as you descend into these the 
eye may be relieved with sight of vegetation. Perhaps a gazelle 
dashes away in fright to the nearest sand hills, or it may be 
you catch a glimpse of a naked Arab youth tending his flock 
of goats, for even desert wastes are not utterly void of plant 
and animal life. 

These deserts are not even rainless, though as much as four 
years have been known to pass without a shower.. A rain 
storm is watched Avith breathless hope by the nomad Arab 
tribes. They see the clouds drifting up from the distant Indian 
Ocean and pitching their black tents on the summits of the 
mountains that divide the Nile Yalley from the Bed Sea. A 
north wind may blow during the night and sweep them back 
whence they came. But more likely they burst into thunder- 
storm, as if all the storms of a season were compressed into 
one. The dry wadys of yesterday are roaring torrents by 
morning, bearing to the Nile their tribute of a single day, and 
for a day or a week, the desert air is pure and the desert sand 
shoots a tender vegetation, only to be withered, like Jonah's 
gourd, in fewer hours than it sprang. 

The Arab camel driver, however, knows well a few spots 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 265 

wliere ace running water and green turf the year round. These 
are the oases, or stepping stones, by means of which the burn- 
ing wilderness may be crossed. Sometimes the wells fail, or 
have been poisoned or filled, or are in the possession of a 
hostile predatory band. Then the unfortunate traveller has to 
face death by thirst or exhaustion as he hurries on to the next 
halting place. At any rate he is profoundly thankful when the 
welcome waters of the Nile come into view again at Abu- 
Hammed, and he knows he is within safe navigable distance of 
Kartoum, at- the junction of the White and Blue Nile. 

And now, in passing from Abu-Hammed to Kartoum, we 
have a grand secret of the Nile. For twelve hundred miles 
above its mouth that mysterious river receives no tributary on 
the right hand nor on the left. It may be traced hke a ribbon 
of silver with a nari^w fringe of green, winding in great folds 
through a hot and thirsty desert and under the full blaze of a 
sun that drinks its waters but returns nothing in the shape of 
rain. And man also exacts a heavy tribute for purposes of 
irrigation. Whence its supply? Look for a partial answer to 
the Atbara, whose mouth is in the east bank of the Nile, half 
way from Abu-Hammed to Kartoum. Here light begins to 
break on the exhaustless stores of the Nile. During the 
greater part of the year the Atbara is dry. Not a hopeful 
source of supply, you say at once. The sources of the Atbara 
are away off to the east in the mountains of Abyssinia, whose 
great buttresses are now visible from the Nile Valley, and 
whose projections push to the Eed Sea and Indian Ocean. 
There also are a Lake Eegion and Nile sources, whose dis- 
covery by Bruce a century ago gave the scientific world quite 
a stir. His account of this Abyssinian country, so unique in 
physical features, social life, history, religion and ancient 
remains, read so much like romance that it was not believed. 
But Beke, De Cosson, James Bruce and the great Livingstone, 
have since verified all and given him his proper place among 
accurate observers and intrepid travellers. 

But it was Sir Samuel Baker, on his first journey up the 
Nile in 1861, who pointed out the importance of the Abyssinian 



266 



SOURCES OF TEE NILE. 




rivers as Nile tributaries. He 
turned aside from his soutla- 
ward route and followed the 
dry bed of the Atbara for a 
double purpose. First, to 
watcli the great annual flood- 
ing of this Nile feeder. Sec- 
ond, to enjoy the sport of 
capturing some of the big 
game, such as the elephant, 
rhinoceros, hippopotamus 
giraffe and lion, known to 
abound in the thick jungles 
covering the lower slopes of 
the adjacent hills. 

The Atbara, or "Black 
Nile," was simply a vast 
wady or furrow, thirty feet 
deep and 400 yards to 
half a mile across, plowed 
through the heart of the desert, its edges marked by a thin 
growth of leafless mimosas and dome palms. The only trace of 
water was here and there a rush-fringed pool which the impetu- 
ous torrent had hollowed out in the sudden bends in the river's 
course, and where disported themselves hippopotami, crocodiles, 
and immense turtles, that had long ago adjusted their relations 
on a friendly footing on the discovery that none of them could 
do harm to the others. On the 23 of June, the simoom was 
blowing with overpowering force; the heat was furnace-like, and 
the tents of travellers were covered with several inches of drift- 
ed sancl. Above, in the Abyssinian mountains, however, the 
Hghtnings were playing and the rains were falling as if the win- 
dows of heaven had been opened. The monsoon had set in ; the 
rising streams were choking their narrow channels in their fran- 
tic rush to the lowlands, and were tearing away huge masses of 
the rich dark soil, to be spread a month hence over the flat 
plains of Egypt. The uartv encamoed on the Atbara heard 



PORTRAIT OF BAKER. 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 267 

through the night a sound as if of distant thunder ; but it was 
"thQ roar of the approaching water." 

"Wonder of the desert ! Yesterday there was a "barren sheet 
of glaring sand with a fringe of withered busli and tree. All 
nature was most poor. No bush could boast a leaf No tree 
could throw a shade. In one night there was a mysterious 
change — wonders of the mighty Nile ! An army of waters was 
hastening to the wasted river. There was no drop of rain, no 
thunder cloud on the horizon to give hope. All had 
been dry and sultry. Dust and desolation yesterday; to-day 
a magnificent stream five hundred yards wide and twenty feet deep, 
dashing through a dreary desert. Bamboos, reeds, floating mat- 
ter of all kinds, hurry along the turbid waters. Where are all 
the crowded inhabitants of the pools? Their prison-doors are 
open, the prisoners are released, and all are rejoicing in the deep 
sounding and rapid waters of the Atbara. 

Here is the clue to one part of the Nile mystery — its great 
annual inundations, source of fertilizing soil and slime. The 
Blue Nile, further on, and with its sources in the same Abys- 
sinian fastnesses, contributes like the Atbara, though in a sec- 
ondary degree, to the annual Nile flood and to Egypt's fertility, 
with this difference, that it flows all the year rou.nd. 
. At Kartoum, as already seen, we reach the junction of the 
White and Blue Nile, the frontier of two strongly contrasted 
physical regions, and the dividing line between the nomadic 
barbarism of the north and the settled barbarism of the south. 
The secret that has still to be unveiled is the source of that 
unfailing flow of water which perpetually resists the influences 
of absorbtion, evaporation and irrigation, and carries a life 
giving stream through the heart of Egypt at all seasons of the 
year. 

Kartoum has ingrafted all the vices of its northern society 
on the squalor and misery of its southern. A more miserable, 
filthy and unhealthy spot can hardly he imagined. Yet it is 
not uninteresting, for here, up to a recent period, was the 
"threshold of the unknown." It has been the starting point of 
numberless Nile expeditions since the days of the Pharaohs. 



268 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

Mehemet Ali, first viceroy of Egypt, pushed his conquest of the 
Soudan, a little south of it in 1839. He found the climate so 
unhealthy that he estabhshed a penal colony a little way up 
the White Nile, banishment to which was considered equivalent 
to death. 

Says Sir Samuel Baker of Kartoum, on his second visit in 
1869: "During my. first visit in 1861, the population was 
30,000. It is now reduced one-half, and nearly all the European 
residents have disappeared. And the change in the country 
between Berber and Kartoum is frightful. The river's banks, 
formerly verdant with heavy crops, have become a wilderness. 
Villages, once crowded, have entirely disappeared. Irrigation has 
ceased. The nights, formerly discordant with the croaking of 
waterwheels, are now silent as death. Industry has vanished. 
Oppression has driven the inhabitants from the soil. It is all due 
to the Governor General of Soudan who, like a true Moham- 
medan, left his government to Providence while he increased 
the taxes. The population of the richest province of Soudan 
has fled oppression and abandoned the country. The greater 
portion have taken to the slave trade of the White i\ile where, 
in their turn, they might trample on the rights of others, where, 
as they had been plundered, they might plunder." 

The wilderness of fever- stricken marshes that line the White 
Nile long baffled the attempts of the most determined explor- 
ers to penetrate to the southward. At length " dry land " was 
reached again at Gondokoro, only five degrees from the equa- 
tor. It in turn became an advanced position of Egyptian 
authority, a centre of mission enterprise, a half-way house where 
the traveller rested and equipped himself for new discoveries. 
From the base of Gondokoro, Petherick pursued his researches 
into the condition of the negro races of the Upper Nile; the 
Italian traveller, Miani, penetrated far towards the southwest, 
into the countries occupied by the Nyam-Nyam tribes, that sin- 
gular region of dwarfs and cannibals; and Dr. Schweinfurth, 
Colonel Long, and Mdlle. Tinne followed up the search v^ith 
magnificent results. Mdlle. Tinne, a brave Dutch lady, deserves 
special notice as having been perhaps the first European \FomaD 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 



269 



wlio encountered tlie terrible hardsliips and perils of tlie explor- 
er's life in the cause of African discovery. She is far, however 




MADEMOISELLE TINNE, 



from being tne last The wives of two of the greatest pioneers 
in the work — Mrs Livingstone and Lady Baker — accompanied 



270 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 




MRS. BAKER. 



with a noble-minded resolu- 
tion the steps of their hus- 
bands, the one along the banks 
of the Zambesi, and the other 
on the White Nile. Mdlle. 
Tinne and Mrs. Livingstone 
paid with their lives for their 
devotion, and are buried by 
the streams from whose 
waters thej helped to raise 
the veil. Lady Baker has 
been more fortunate. Only a 
girl of seventeen when she 
rode by her husband's side 
from Gondokoro, she lived to 
return to Europe where her 
name is inseparably linked 
with two great events of 
African history — the discovery 
of one of the great lakes of the Nile and the suppression of 
the slave traffic. 

As already intimated, the Egyptian conquest and annexation 
of the Soudan country, and the bad government of it which 
followed, made the region of the White Nile the great man- 
hunting ground of Africa. The traffic was general when the 
modern travellers began their struggle to reach the equatorial 
lakes. Arab traders were the chief actors in these enterprises 
and they were joined by a motley crew of other races, not 
excepting most of the white and Christian races. If they were 
not directly under the patronage of the Egyptian authorities at 
Kartoum, they made it worth while for those authorities to 
keep a patronizing silence, by throwing annually into their 
treasury something handsome in the shape of cash. 

Kartoum marks pretty distinctly the limit of the Arab races 
and the influence of the Mohammedan religion. Beyond, and 
toward the equator and Nile sources, are the negro and pagan. 
Fanaticism and race hatred, therefore, helped to inflame the 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 271 

evil passions whicli the slave trade invariably arouses. The 
business of the miscreants engaged in this detestable work was 
simply kidnapping and murder. The trade of the White Nile 
was purel}'' slave-hunting. The trifling trafl&c in ivory and gums 
was a mere deception and sham, intended to cover the operations 
of the slaver. A marauding expedition would be openly fitted 
out at Kartoura, composed of some of the most atrocious ruffians 
m Africa and soath- western Asia, with the scum of a few 
European cities. Their favorite mode of going to work was to 
take advantage of one of those wars which are constantly being 
waged between the tribes of Central Africa. If a war were not 
going on in the quarter which the slave-hunters had marked out 
for their raid, a quarrel was purposely fomented — at no time a 
difficult task in Africa. At dead of night the marauders with their 
black allies would steal down upon the doomed village. At a signal 
the huts are fired over the heads of the sleeping inmates, a vol- 
ley of musketry is poured in, and the gang of desperadoes 
spring upon their victims. A scene of wild confusion and mas- 
sacre follows, until all resistance has been relentlessly put down, 
and then the slave-catcher counts over and secures his human 
spoils. This is the first act of the bloody drama. Most 
probably, if the kidnappers think they have not made a large 
enough " haul," they pick a quarrel with their allies, who are 
in their turn shot down, or overpowered and, menacled to 
their late enemies, are soon floating down the Nile in a slave 
dhow, on their way to the markets of Egypt or Turkey. The 
waste of human life, the stoppage of industry and honest trade, 
the demoralization of the whole region within reach of the 
raiders, the detestable cruelties and crimes practised on the help- 
less captives on the journey down the river, on the caravan 
route across the desert, or in the stifling dens where they are 
lodged at the slave depots and markets, represent an enormous 
total of human misery. 

Many will remember the efforts of Colonel Gordon, whom the 
Khedive made a Pasha, and also a Governor General of the 
Soudan, at the capital Kartoum. to suppress this nefarious traffic. 
And it will also be remembered how in the late revolt against 



SOUECES OF THE NILE. 273 

Egyptian authority, led by El Malidi, Colonel Gordon again 
headed a forlorn hope to Kartoum, with the hope that he 
could stay the rising fanatical tide, or at least control it, so as 
to prevent a fresh recognition of slave stealers. He fell a victim 
to his philanthropic views, and was murdered in the streets of 
the city he went to redeem. 

"We have already made the reader acquainted with the heroic 
and more successful efforts of Colonel Baker, Pasha, in the same 
direction. He was not so much of a religious enthusiast as 
Colonel Gordon, did not rely on fate, but thought an imposing, 
organized force the best way to strike terror into these piratical 
traders, and at the same time inspire the negro races with better 
views of self protection In the long and brilliant record which 
Colonel Baker made in Africa, the honors he gathered as a mili- 
tary hero bent on suppressing the slave trade will ever be 
divided evenly with those acquired as a dauntless traveller and 
accurate scientific observer. 

Let it not be thought that slave catching and selling is now 
extinct. True, the care exercised in the waters of the Red Sea 
and .Indian Ocean, makes it difficult to run slave cargoes into 
Arabia and the further east. True, Baker's expedition broke up 
a force of some two thousand organized kidnappers on the 
Upper White Nile, but these piratical adventurers are still 
abroad in more obscure paths and compelled to rely more on 
guile and cunning than on force for securing their prey. 

But let us pursue our journey from Kartoum toward the 
"Springs of the Nile." We do not take the Blue Nile. That 
comes down from the east, and the Abyssinian mountains. 
We take the White Nile, which is the true Nile, and comes 
up from the south or southwest. And we must suppose we are 
going along with Colonel Baker on his first journey, which was 
one in search of the Nile sources. It was a scientific tour, and 
not an armed one like his second expedition. 

Entering the White Nile, we plunge into a new world — a 

region whose climate and animal and vegetable life, in brief, 

whose whole aspect and nature, are totally unlike those of the 

desert which stretches up to the walls of Kartoum. We are 

18 



274 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 



within the zone of regular rainfall, an intermediate region that 
extends to the margin of the great lakes, where we meet with 
the equatorial belt of perennial rains. Henceforth we have not 
only heat but moisture acting upon tTie face of nature 

One may determine which of the two climates is the more 
tolerable by considering whether he would prefer to be roasted 
or stewed. The traveller would find it hard to decide whether 
the desert or the swamp is the greater bar to his advance. 




SWAMPS OF THE WHITE NILE. 



Every mile of progress marks an increase of dampness and of 
warmth. First of all, we pass through the great mimosa forest, 
which extends, belt-like, almost across the continent, marking the 
confines of the Sahara and the Soudan. The reader must not 
imagine a dense girdle of tall trees and tangled undergrowth, 
but a park-like country, with wide glades between clumps and 



SOUECES OF THE NILE. 275 

lines of tliorny shrubbery. The mimosa, or Arabian acacia — 
the tree from which tlie gum-arabic of commerce is extracted — 
has assigned to it the out-post duty in the struggle between 
tropical luxuriance and desert drought. By and by it gives 
place to the ambatch as the characteristic tree of the Nile, 
The margin of the river becomes marshy and reedy. The 
water encroaches on the land' and the land on the water. The 
muddy stream rolls lazily along between high walls of rank 
vegetation, and bears whole islands of intertwisted leaves, roots 
and stems on its bosom, very much as an Arctic strait bears 
its acres of ice floes. It breaks up into tortuous channels that 
lead everywhere and nowhere. A nearly vertical sun shines 
dov/n on the voyager as he slowly toils up stream. Scarcely a 
breath of air stirs to blow away the malarious mists or fill a 
drooping sail. Mosquitoes are numerous, and insatiate for blood. 

Day thus follows day with nothing to break the monotony 
except now and then the appearance of a hippopotamus, rising 
snortingly to the surface, a crocodile with his vicious jaws, or, 
where the land is solid, a buffalo pushing his head through the 
reeds to take a drink. The true river margin is invisible 
except from the boat's masts over the head of the tall papyrus. 
Even could we reach it, we would wish ourselves back again, 
for of all the growth of this dismal swamp man is the most repul- 
sive. The Dinka tribes of the White Nile are among the 
lowest in the scale of human beings. They are naked, both as 
to clothing and moral qualities. The Shillooks are a finer 
race physicall}^, but inveterate pirates and murderers. 

In the midst of this swampy region the Nile receives another 
important tributary from the mountains of Southern Abyssinia. 
It is the Sobat which, Speke says, "runs for a seven days' 
journey through a forest so dense as to completely exclude the 
rays of the sun." 

Above its mouth we must be prepared to meet the greatest 
of all the obstructions of the Nile. Here are many small 
affluents from both east and west, and here is a vast stretch of 
marsh through which th_e waters soak as through a sponge. In 
the centre of this "sponge" tract is a small lake — Lake No. 



276 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 



But to reacla it or emerge from it again, by means of the 
labyrinthine channels, is a work of great difficulty. The 
"sponge" is a thick coating of roots, grasses and stems matted 
together so as to conceal the waters, yet open enough for them 
to percolate through. It may be ventured upon by human feet, 
and in many places supports quite a vegetation. But the 
traveller is in constant danger of falling through, to say nothing 
of the danger from various animals. It was through this 




CROSSING A SPONGE. 

"sponge" that Colonel Baker, in his second Nile expedition, 
maaaged to cut a canal, through which was dragged the first 
steamer that ever floated on the head waters of the great river. 
Having passed this obstacle the journey is easier to Gondo- 
koro, where the land is firm. Twenty-three years ago Gondo- 
koro was a collection of grass huts in the midst of an untrodden 



SOUKCES OF THE NILE. 277 

wilderness, and surrounded by barbarous and hostile tribes. It has 
since been made an Egyptian military station and named 
Ismailia. 

Though the spot is not inviting except as it affords you rest 
after your hardships, yet it is the scene of an interesting episode 
in the history of African exploration. Speke and Grant had 
started on their memorable trip from Zanzibar in 1861. Colonel 
Baker and his wife had started up the Nile for its sources in 
the same year. Now it is February, 1863. A travel stained 
caravan, with two white men at its head, comes down the high 
ground back of the station. They quicken their pace and enter 
the village with shouts, waving of flags and firing of musketry. 
It is Speke and Grant on their return- trip, with the secret of 
the Nile in their keeping. 

On their long tramp they had visited strange peoples and 
countries, and by courage and tact had escaped unharmed from 
a number of difficulties and perils. They had traced the one 
shore of that vast reservoir of fresh Avater under the Equator 
which Speke had sighted on a previous expedition, and had 
named Victoria Nyanza. They had seen this beautiful equatorial 
reservoir discharging its surplus waters northward over the pic- 
turesque Eipon Falls, and knew that they were in possession 
of the secret which all the world had sought from the beginning. 

Lower down, at the Karnma Falls, they were compelled to 
leave the stream, which they now felt sure was the Nile. 
Crossing to the right bank, they struck across the country, 
northward, and in a direct line for Gondokoro. Here they caught 
sight of the furthest outpost of Egyptian exploration, and again 
gladly looked on the river that was to bear them down to the 
Mediterranean. 

By a curious coincidence, the first Englishman who had pen- 
etrated so far to the southward, was at that moment in Gondo- 
koro. Samuel Baker and his wife were interrupted in their 
preparations for their journey to the Nile sources by the noise 
of the approaching party, and they rode out to see what all the 
hubbub meant. Four people from a distant nook of Europe met 
in the heart of Africa; and as they clasped hands, the hoary 



278 SOUECES OF THE NILE. 

secret of the Nile was unriddled ! All of them had numberless 
difficulties before as well ar; behind them; but their hearts were 
undismayed, and swelled only with pride at what had been 
accomplished for science a ad for their native land. The trav- 
ellers from Zanzibar bore the marks of their long journey — 
"battered and torn, but sound and seaworthy." "Speke," 
Baker tells us, "appeared the more worn of the two; he was 
excessivdy lean, but in reality in good tough condition. He 
had walked the whole way from Zanzibar, never having once 
ridden during the weary march. Grant was in honorable rags, 
his bare knees projecting through the remnants of trousers that 
were an exhibition of rough industry in tailor-work. He was 
looking tired and feverish, but both men had a fire in the eye 
that showed the spirit that had led them through." The first 
greetings over. Baker's earliest question was : Was there no leaf 
of the laurel reserved for him ? Yes ; there was. Below the 
Karuma Falls, Speke and Grant had been informed the stream 
from the Victoria ISTyanza fell into and almost immediately 
emerged again from another lake, the Luta Nzige. This 
therefore might be the ultimate reservoir of the Nile waters. 
No European had ever seen or heard of this basin before. 
Baker determined it should be his prize. 

But now we meet a new class of obstacles as we undertake 
a land journey into intertropical Africa. There is no longer, as 
in the desert, danger from thirst and starvation, for game 
abounds, and we are in some degree out of the interminable 
swamps of river navigation. But a small army of porters must 
be got together. They must be drilled, and preparations must 
be made for feeding them. True, some explorers have gone 
well nigh alone. But it is not best. Stanley always travelled 
with one to two hundred natives, and quite successfully. 

And these natives are by no means easy to handle. They 
are ready to make bargains, but are panicky and often desert, 
or, what is worse, take advantage of any relaxation of discipline 
to rise in mutiny. Their leader must be stern of will, yet kind 
and good-natured, wise as a serpent and watchful as a hawk. 
When a start is made, difficulties accumulate. You must expect 



SOUECES OF THE NILE. 



279 



incredible rainfalls, and an amazing growtli of vegetation, 
Theu in the dry season, which is hardly more than two to 
three months in a year, the shrubs and grasses are burned up 
far and wide. 

Everywhere there is jungle of grass, reeds and bamboos, when 
the rivers are at their height ; and amid the forests the great 
stems of the pandanus, banana and boabab are covered to their 
tops with a feathery growth of ferns and orchids, and festooned 




PREPARATIONS FOB THE START, 

with wild vines and creeping plants. The native vi/lages are 
almost smothered under the dark luxuriance of plant life, and 
lions and other beasts of prey can creep up unseen to the very 
doors of the huts. The whole country becomes a tangled brake, 
with here and there an open space, or a rough track marking 
where an elephant, rhinoceros or bufialo has crushed a way in 
the high grass. 



280 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

Then ahead of us, and between Gondokoro and the lakes we 
seek, the country has been so raided bj slave hunters, that every 
native can be counted on as an enemy. Or a native war may 
be in progress, and if so, great care must be taken to avoid 
siding with either party. We must retreat here and push on there, 
avoiding perils of this class as we value our lives. There is 
no road through Africa of one's own choice, and none that may 
not entail an entire backward step for days, and perhaps forever. 

At Gondokoro we are in the midst of the Bari tribe. Pagans 
before, contact with the Arab wanderers and slave stealers has 
made them savages. They live in low thatched huts, rather 
neat in appearance, and surrounded by a thick hedge to keep 
off intruders. The men are well grown and the women not 
handsome, but the thick lips and flat nose of the negro are 
wanting. They tattoo their stomachs artistically, and smear 
their bodies with a greasy pigment of ochre. Their only cloth- 
ing is a bunch of feathers stuck in the slight tuft of hair which 
they permit to grow on their heads, and a neat lappet around 
the loins, of about six inches in depth, to which is appended a 
tail piece made of shreds of leather or cotton. 

Every man carries his weapons, pipe and stool. The former 
are chiefly the bow and arrows. They use a poisoned arrow 
when fighting. The effect of the poison in the system is not 
to kill but to corrode the flesh and bone, till they drop away 
in pieces. The bows are of bamboo, not very elastic, and the 
archers are not dexterous. 

It was while in Gondokoro, on this his first Nile journey, 
that Baker had opportunity to study, and occasion to feel, the 
enormities of the slave traffic. The Moslem traders regarded 
him as a spy on their nefarious operations. They manacled 
their slaves more closely and stowed them away securely in 
remote and secret stockades. Their conduct as citizens was 
outrageous, for they kept the town in a continual uproar by 
their drinking bouts, their brawls with the natives, and promis- 
cuous firing of guns and pistols. One of their bullets killed a 
boy of Baker's party. It was evident that these marauders 
were intent on compelling him to make a hasty departure, for 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 281- 

they incited trouble among his men, and inflamed the natives 
against his presence. 

As an instance of the trouble which grew out of this, his 
men asked the privilege of stealing, some cattle from the 
natives for a feast. He denied their request. A mutiny was 
the result. Baker ordered the ringleader to be bound and 
punished with tv*^enty-five lashes. The men refused to adminis- 
ter the punishment and stood by their ringleader. Baker 
undertook to enforce the order himself, when the black leader 
rushed at him with a stick. Baker stood his ground and 
knocked his assailant down with his fist. Then he booted him 
severely, while his companions looked on in amazement at his 
boldness and strength. But they rallied, and commenced to 
pelt him with sticks and stones. His wife saw his danger. 
She ordered the drums to be beaten and in the midst of the 
confusion rushed to the rescue. The clangor distracted the 
attention of the assailants, and a parley ensued. The matter 
was settled by a withdrawal of the sentence on the condition 
that the leader should apologize and swear fealty again. 

Before Baker could complete his preparations for starting, the 
fever broke out in Gondokoro, and both he and his wife fell 
sick. In order to escape the effluvium of the more crowded 
village, he moved his tents and entire encampment to the high 
grouiid above the river. While the animals were healthy, the 
donkeys and camels were attacked by a greenish brown bird, of 
the size of a thrush, with a red beak and strong claws. It lit 
on the beasts to search for vermin, but its beak penetrated the 
flesh, and once a hole was established, the bird continually 
enlarged it to the great annoyance of the animal which could 
neither eat nor sleep. The animals had to be watched by boys 
continually till their wounds were healed. 

An Arab guide, named Mohammed, had been engaged, and the 
expedition was about to move. Mrs. Baker had brought a boy 
along from Kartoum, by the name of Saat. He had become 
quite attached to her, as had another servant named Richarn. 
The guide, Mohammed, said he had seventy porters ready and 
that a start could be made on Monday. But the fellow was in 



282 SOURCES OP THE NILE. 

a conspiracy to start on Saturday without Baker. Mrs. Baker 
found it out througli Saat and Richarn. She ordered the tents 
to be struck and a start to be made on the moment. This npu- 
plussed Mohammed. He wavered and hesitated. She brought 
his accusers face to face with him when, to Baker's astonish- 
ment, the plot came out, that the entire force of porters had 
conspired to desert as soon as they got the arms and ammuni- 
tion in their hands, and to kill Baker in case resistance was 
offered. 

Nothing was left but to disarm and discharge the whole force. 
He gave them written discharges, with the word " mutineer" 
beneath his signature, and thus the fellows, none of whom could 
read, A¥ent about bearing the evidences of their own guilt. 
Baker now tried in vain to enhst a new party of porters. The 
people had been poisoned against him. He applied to Koor- 
schid, a Circassian chief, for ten elephant hunters and two inter- 
preters, but the wily chief avoided him. It looked as if he 
would have to give over his contemplated journey for the sea- 
son. But by dint of hard work he managed to gather seven- 
teen men, whom he hoped to make true to him by kind treat- 
ment. At this juncture a party of Koorschid's people arrived 
from the Latooka country with a number of porters. Their 
chief, Adda, a man of magnificent proportions, took a fancy to 
Baker and invited him to visit the Latookas. He was given 
presents, and his picture was taken, which pleased him greatly. 
His followers came and were similarly treated and delighted. 
They agreed to accompany Baker back to their country, but a 
body of Turkish traders were also going thither. They not 
only declared that Baker should not have the escort of these 
people, but actually pressed them into their own service. And 
then, to make things worse, they threatened to incite the tribes 
through which they had to pass against him should he dare to 
follow. 

Baker thought he could meet any mischief of this kind by 
dealing liberally in presents, and so resolved to follow the tra- 
ders. He loaded his camels and donkeys heavily, and started 
with his seventeen untried men. Mrs. Baker was mounted on a 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 283 

good Abyssinian horse, carrying several leather bags at tlie pom- 
mel of the saddle. Colonel Baker was similarly mounted and 
loaded. They had neither guide nor interpreter. Not one native 
was procurable, owing to the baleful influence of the traders. 
Their journey began about an hour after sunset, and Colonel 
Baker, taking the distant mountains of Balignan as his land- 
mark, led the way. 

If we are now amid the hardships of an African journey, 
we are also amid its excitements. Can we outstrip the 
Turkish traders? If so it will be well, for then they cannot 
stir up the tribes against us. We Avill try. But our camels are 
heavily loaded, and their baggage catches in the overhanging 
bramble. Every now and then one of those most heavily top 
laden is swung from his path, and even rolls into a steep gulch, 
when he has to be unpacked and his load carried up on to the 
level before being replaced. It is tantalizing for those in a 
hurrj^ But the traders are also travelling slowly for they are 
buying and selling. 

Presently two of their Latookas come to us, having deserted. 
They are thirsty, and direct us to a spot where water can be 
had. While we are drinking, in comes a party of natives with the 
decayed head of a wild boar, which they cook and eat, even 
though the maggots are thick in it. The health of these people 
does not seem to be affected by even the most putrid flesh. 

These Latooka deserters now become guides. They lead the 
way, with Colonel and Mrs. Baker. The country is that of the 
Tolloga natives. While we halt under a fig tree to rest and 
await the rearward party with the laden animals, the ToUogas 
emerge from their villages and surround us. There are five or 
six hundred of them, all curious, and especially delighted at 
sight of our horses. "VThey had never seen a horse before. We 
inquire for their chief, when a humped-backed little fellow asked 
in broken Arabic who we were. 

Colonel Baker said he was a traveller. 

" Do you want ivory ? " asked the hunchback. 

" We have no use for it." 

"Ah, you want slaves?" 



284 SOURCES OF THE KILE. 

"No we do not want slaves." 

At this there was a shout of laughter, as though such thing 
could not be. Then the hunchback continued : 

" Have you got plenty of cows ? " 

" No, but plenty of beads and copper." 

" "Where are they ? " 

"With my men. They will be here directly." 

" What countryman are you ? " 

"An Englishman." 

He had never heard of such a people. 

"You are a Turk," he continued. 

"All right; anything you like." 

"And that is your son?" pointing to Mrs. Baker. 

"No, that is my wife." 

"Your wife! What a lie! He is a boy." 

" Not a bit of it. This is my wife who has come along with 
me to see the women of your country." 

"What a lie!" he again exclaimed. 

Mrs. Baker was dressed precisely like her husband, except that 
her sleeves were long while the Colonel's arms were bare. 

Soon Tombe, the chief of the tribe, put in an appearance. 
He is propitiated with plenty of beads and copper bracelets and 
drives his importunate people away. The hunchback is employed 
as interpreter, and. now our party is away over a rough road, 
determined to beat the Turks through the Ellyrian tribe beyond. 
But it is too late. Their advance is ahead. Their centre passes 
us in disdain. Their leader, Ibrahim, comes up, scowls and passes-, 
on. Mrs. Baker calls to the Colonel to stop him and have a 
friendly talk. He does so, tells him they need never clash as 
they are after two entirely different objects. Then he shows 
him how he could either punish or befriend him once they were 
back at Kartoum. The old villain listens, and is moved. Baker 
then gives him a double-barreled gun and some gold. Both 
parties now march into Ellyria together, glad to escape the 
rocky defiles which had to be threaded on the last stages of the 
journey, where many a trader has lost his life. 

We here meet with Legge, the chief, who demands black- 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 285 

mail. Baker gives liberally of beads and bracelets, but Legge 
gives nothing in return, except some boney. Oar men have to 
draw for food on the reserve stores of rice, which they no 
sooner boil and mix with the honey than along comes Legge 
and helps himself, eating like a cormorant till he can hold no 
more. We can only stay here one day, for the people are 
very annoying and will part with nothing except their honey. 
So we leave these bullet-headed natives, and start again toward 
Latooka, over a level country and an easier road. 

Old Ibrahim and Colonel and Mrs. Baker now lead the way. 

The wily old Arab gets confidential, and informs the Colonel 
that his men intend to mutiny as soon as they get to Latooka. 
Tkis news gives the Colonel time to prepare. Li two days we 
enter the Wakkula country, rich in pasturage and abundant in 
water, literally filled with big game, such as elephants, rhin- 
oceri, buffalo. Giraffes, wild boars and antelope. A buffalo is 
found in a trap, and partly eaten by a lion. The men make a 
feast of the remainder. It is the first meat, they have eaten 
since they left Gondokoro, and it is a great relish. A hunt by 
the Colonel brings in several fine antelope, enough to last till 
Latooka is reached. 

And now we are among the Latooka villages. There are 
Turkish traders there already, for they are gathered in Latome, 
a border village. Tbey fire off' guns, and forbid Ibrahim and 
his party to pass, claiming an exclusive right to trade there. 
There is a row between the Moslem traders, in which poor 
Ibrahim is almost strangled to death. The Colonel observes a 
strict neutrality, as the time had not come for him to take sides. 

After wrangling for hours all retired to sleep. The next 
morning he calls his men to resume the march. Four of 
them rise in mutiny, seize their guns and assume a threatening 
attitude. Belaal, the leader, approaches and says : — 

" Not a man shall go with you. Go where you will with 
Ibrahim, but we won't move a step. You may employ niggers 
to load the camels, but not us." 

"Lay down your gun, and load the camels!" thunders the 
Colonel, 



286 SOUKCES OF THE NILE. 

"I won't," was the defiant reply. 

"Then stop right here!" As quick as a flash the Colonel 
lands a blow on his jaw, and the ringleader rolls in a heap 
among the luggage, the gun flying in the opposite direction. 
There is a momentary panic, during which the Colonel seizes a 
rifle and rushes among the mutineers, insisting on their going 
to work and almost dragging them to their places. They obey 
mechanically. The camels are soon loaded and we are ofl' 
again. But Ibrahim and his party have been gone for some 
time. 

Belaal and four others soon after desert. The Colonel 
declares the vultures will soon pick their bones. Four days 
after, word comes that the deserters have been killed by a 
party of savages. The rest of the party think it ■ came about 
in accordance with the Colonel's prophecy, and credit him with 
magical powers. 

Thirteen miles from Latome is TarrangoUe, the largest 
Latooka village, where Moy,- the chief, resides. Here Ibrahim 
stopped to collect his ivory and slaves. Crowds came out of 
the village to meet us, but their chief attraction was Mrs. Baker 
and the camels. These Latookas are, doubtless, the finest made 
savages in all Africa. They are tall, muscular and beautifully 
proportioned. They have high foreheads, large eyes, high cheek 
bones, small mouths, and full, but not thick lips. Their count- 
enances are pleasing, their manners civil. They are frank but 
warlike, merry yet always ready for a fight. TarrangoUe has 
3000 houses, surrounded by palisades; and each house is fortified 
by a stokade. The houses are very tall and bell shaped. They 
are entered by a low door not over two feet high. The interior 
is clean but unlighted by windows. Their cattle are kept in kraals 
and are very carefully tended. Their dead, who are killed in war, 
are allowed to lie on the field as food for vultures. Those who 
die at home are lightly buried for a time. Then they are exhumed, 
the flesh stripped off, and the bones put into an earthen jar, 
which is deposited in the common pile or mound outside of 
the village. Every village has its burial pile, which is a huge 
collection of jars. They wear no clothes, but bestow great 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 287 

attention on their hair. Their weapons are the lance, an iron- 
head mace, a long bladed knife, and an ugly iron bracelet armed 
with knife blades four inches long. The women are not as 
finely shaped as the men. They are large, heavy limbed 
creatures, used to drudgery. 

Chief Moy visits us and looks for the first time on a white 
person. The Colonel makes presents of beads, bracelets, and a 
necklace of pearls for Bokke, the chief's favorite wife. " What 
a row there will be in the family when my other wives see 
Bokke's present," says the wily old chief. The Colonel takes the 
hint and gives him three pounds of beads to be divided between his 
wives. Next day, Bokke comes to the Colonel's hut, all covered 
with beads, tatooed on her cheeks, and with a piece of ivory 
hanging in her lower lip. She is not bad looking, and her 
daughter is as comely a savage as you ever saw. 

Horrid word comes that a party of Turkish traders have been 
massacred in a Latooka village which they had tried to destroy 
and to make slaves of the inhabitants'. All is now excitement. 
Ibrahim's party and our own are in imminent danger. But 
Moy intercedes for his white guests and appeases the angry 
natives. Though rich in cattle, our party cannot get a pound 
of beef from these Latookas. But ducks and geese are plenty in 
a stream close by, and -^e are allowed to kill all we want. 

Let us look in upon a Latooka funeral dance in honor of a 
dead warrior. What grotesque dresses the dancers appear in ! 
Ostrich feathers adorn their helmets of hair, leopard and monkey 
skins hang from their shoulders, bells dangle at a waist belt, 
an antelope horn is hung round the neck, which is blown in the 
midst of the excitement. The dancers rush round and round in 
an " infernal galop," brandishing lances and maces, and keeping 
pretty fair time. The women keep outside the lines, dance awk- 
wardly and scream like catamounts. Beyond them are the children, 
greasy with red ochre and ornamented with beads, keeping time 
with their feet to the inward movement. One woman runs into 
the midst of the men and sprinkles ashes promiscuously on all 
from a gourd. She is fat and ugly, but evidently an important 
part of the occasion. 



288 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

These people are briglit, and argue in favor of their material- 
istic belief with great shrewdness. The Colonel tried to illus- 
trate his belief by placing a grain of corn in the ground and 
observing :— " That represents you when you die." Covering it 
with earth, he continued, "The grain will decay, but from it 
will arise a plant that will reproduce it again in its original 

form." 

" Precisely," said old Comorro, brother of Moy, " that I under- 
stand. But the original grain does not rise again; it rots like 
the dead man and is ended; so I die, and am ended; but my 
children grow up hke the fruit of the grain. Some have no 
children; some grains perish; then all is ended." 

Here we remain for two weeks, waiting till Ibrahim comes 
back from Gondokoro, whither he had gone with ivory, and 
whence he has promised to bring a &upply of ammunition. 
Meanwhile we must enjoy a hunt, for evidences of game are 
plenty. "We are soon out among the long grasses, when suddenly 
a huge rhinoceros bolts from the copse close at hand. The 
Colonel calls on his companions to bring a gun, but instead of 
obeying they set up a cry, which is to call attention to a herd 
of bull elephants in the forest at the end of the grassy plain. 
Two of the herd spy him and come bearing down upon him. 
He dismounts to get a shot, but the beasts see the dusky Latookas 
and rush off again to join their companions. The Colonel quickly 
mounts and dashes after them, but his horse falls into a buffalo 
hole and throws him. Mounting again, he .pursues, but his 
game has gotten well into the forest. On he goes after the herd, 
to find himself in close quarters with a huge beast that comes 
tearing along, knocking down everything in his track. Firing 
unsteadily from the saddle, he lodges a bullet in the animal's 
shoulder. It turns and makes directly for its assailant, bellow- 
ing like a demon. The Colonel puts spurs to his horse, and 
makes his escape. Arming himself with a heavier gun, he 
returns to the attack and soon sees the herd again, moving 
toward him. One princely fellow has a splendid pair of tusks. 
This he singles out for his game. The elephants at first flee on 
his approach, but on finding themselves pursued they turn and 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 289 

give battle. There is no safety there, and again he retreats. 
A third trial brings him upon the beast he has wounded. It is 
maddened with pain and dashes at him. Trusting to his horse, 
he rushes out of the tangle. The beast does not give up pursuit 
but follows on. His horse is jaded, and the riding is dangerous 
owing to the buffalo holes. The beast gains, and the Colonel's 
cowardly companions give no help. A moment more and the 
beast will be on him. He suddenly wheels his horse, and 
hears the swish of the elephant's trunk past his ears, as the 
monster beast plunges on in its direct course. It gives over the 
chase, and Iceeps on up the hill. It is found dead next morn- 
ing from the effects of the bullet wound. Elephant meat is 
highly prized by the natives, and the fat also. With the latter 
they mix the pigments for their bodies. Their favorite method 
of capturing the animal is by pits, dug very deep in the ani- 
mal's path and covered over with light brambles and grasses. 
They seldom attack with spears, except when they fire the 
grasses. Then they take advantage of the panic which ensues, 
and attack at close quarters. 

Ibrahim returns with plenty of ammunition and reports that 
he is going to the Obbo country. We are delighted, for it is 
directly on our way to the " Lakes of the Nile." So we all go 
together. The country between Latooka and Obbo, a distance of 
forty miles, is very beautiful. It abounds in mountains on whose 
impregnable peaks native villages are seen, and in green valleys 
filled with game. Wild fruit and nuts are also found in plenty. 
The journey is easy and quick. The chief of Obbo is Katchiba, 
an old clownish man who did not beg, for a wonder. He gives 
a dance in our honor, which is really an artistic affair. The 
dusky dancers kept excellent time to their drums and sang a 
wild chorus with considerable effect. The Obbo men wear 
dresses of skin slung "around their shoulders, but the women are 
nearly naked- — the unmarried girls entirely so. 

The secret of Chief Katchiba's power over his tribe is sorcer3^ 

When his people displease him he threatens to curse their 

goats or whither their flocks. Should rain fail to fall, he tells 

them he is sorry they have behaved so badly toward him as 

19 



290 SOURCES OF THE NTLE. 

to merit sucli a punishment. Should it rain too mucli, he 
threatens to pour lightening, storm and rain on them eternally, 
if they don't bring him their contribution of goats, corn and 
beer. They always receive his blessing before starting on a 
journey, believing it will avert evil. In sickness he is called to 
charm away the disease. And the old fellow receives so many 
presents of daughters that he is able to keep a harem in every 
villao-e of his tribe. He counts 116 living children. Each 
village is ruled by a son, so that the whole government is a 
family affair. 

The fine old fellow treats us like princes, and gives us much 
information about the country to the south. The Colonel leaves 
his 'wife in the old chief's care, and we take a little trip, with 
eight men, to test the accuracy of the old chief's story about the 
high water in the river Ashua. We pass through a magnificent 
country and find the river a roaring torrent. The chief's story 
was true. We return to find Mrs. Baker in excellent health and 
spirits having been kindly cared for during our absence. But 
the old chief has fared rather badly. He wanted some chickens 
to present to Mrs. Baker. His people proved stingy, and Kat- 
chiba, who could not walk much on account of his infirmities, 
the chief of which was a head always befuddled with beer, came 
to ask for the loan of a horse, that he might appear on his 
back among his people and thus strike terror into them. His 
former method of travel had been to mount on the back of his 
subjects, and thus make his state journeys, followed by one of 
the strongest of his wives, bearing the inevitable beer pitcher. 

Though wa 'ned by Mrs. Baker of the danger attending such 
an experiment as he proposed, he persisted, and one of the 
blooded Abyssinian animals was brought out equipped for a 
ride. The old chief mounted and told his horse to go. The 
animal did not imderstand and stood still. "Hit him with your 
stick," said one of the attendants. Thwack! came the chief's 
staff across the animal's shoulders. Quick as lightning a pair 
of heels flew into the. air, and the ancient specimen of African 
royalty shot over the horse's head and lay sprawling on the 
ground. He picked himself up, considerably bruised and 



SOUECES OF THE NILE. 291 

:^prained, took a wondering look at the horse, and decided tliat 






f!tf-' 




A EOYAL JOUENEY. 

riding a beast of that kind, where one had so far to fall, was 
not in his line. 

Since we cannot go on with our journey till the rivers to 



292 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

the south of us fall, it is best to go back to Latooka, where 
supplies are more abundant. Katchiba sends us off amid a noisy 
drum ceremony and with his blessing, his brother going along 
as a guide. There is a new member of the party, one Ibrahi- 
mawa, who had been to all the ends of the earth, as soldier and 
adventurer. He was of Bornu birth, but had been captured 
when a boy, and taken into the service of the Sultan of 
Turkey. Even now he was connected with the Turkish garri- 
son, or squad of observation, at Latooka. He got tlie whole 
party into a pretty mess the second day after starting back for 
Latooka, by bringing in a basketful of fine yams, which 
happened to be of a poisonous variety. On eating them, all 
got sick, and had to submit to the penalty of a quick emetic, 
which brought them round all right. 

We now journey easily through the great Latooka, where 
game is so abundant. In sight is a herd of antelope. The 
Colonel dismounts to stalk them, but a swarm of babboons spy 
him and at once set up such a chattering and screeching that 
the antelope take the alarm and make off'. One of the babboons 
was shot. It was az large as a mastiff and had a long brown mane 
like a lion. This was taken by the natives for a body orna- 
ment. That same evening the Colonel goes out in quest of 
other game. A herd of giraffes appear, with their long necks 
stretched up toward the leaves of the mimosa trees, on which 
they are feeding. He tries to stalk them, but the Avary beasts 
run away in alarm. He follows them for a long way in vain 
chase. They were twice as fleet as his horse. 

We are back again at Latooka. But how changed the scene. 
The small pox is raging among both natives and Turks. We 
cannot encamp in the town. Mrs. Baker falls sick with fever, 
Two horses, three camels and five donkeys die for us. King 
Moy had induced the Turks to join him in an attack on the 
Kayala tribe, and the combined forces had been beaten. Thus 
more enemies had been made.. It was no place to stay. So we 
must back to Obbo, and the old chief Katchiba. 

But here things are even worse. The small pox is there 
ahead of us, carried by careless natives or dirty, unprincipled 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 293 

Moslem traders, and tlie whole town is in misery. A party of 
roving traders had raided it and carried off nearly the whole 
stock of cows and oxen. Our horses all die, and most of our 
other animals, under the attacks of the dreadful tsetse fly. Both 
the Colonel and Mrs. Baker fall sick with fever, and the old 
chief comes in to cure them by enchantment. It rains nearly all 
the time, and rats and even snakes seek the huts out of the 
wet. Our stay of two months here is dreary enough, and the 
wonder is that any of us ever get away. 

As soon as the Colonel and Lady Baker can go out they pay 
a visit to Katchiba, which he appreciates, and invites them 
into his private quarters. It is only a brewery, where his 
wives are busy preparing his favorite beer. The old chief 
invites them to a seat, takes up something which passes for a 
harp, and asks if he may sing. Expecting something ludicrous, 
they consent, but are surprised to hear a really well sung and 
neatly accompanied air. The old fellow is evidently as expert 
in music as in beer drinking. 

"Waiting is awful in any African village during the rainy or 
any other season, and especially if the low fevers of the 
country are in your system. We have really lost from May to 
October, on account of the fullness of the streams south of us. 
Our stock of quinine is nearly gone; our cattle are all dead. 
Shall we go on? If so, it must be afoot. And afoot it shall 
be, for we have met an Unyoro slave woman who tells as well 
as she can about a lake called Luta N'Zige, very nearly where 
we expect to find the Albert Nyanza. 

Now the rains have ceased. Wonderful country! Crops 
spring up as if by magic, especially the tullaboon, or African 
corn. But the elephants like it and play havoc by night in 
the green fields. The Colonel, all ague shaken as he is, deter- 
mines to have a night's sport and to bring in some meat which 
he knows the natives will relish. Starting with a servant and a 
goodly supply of heavy rifles — among them is " The Baby," which 
carries a half pound explosive shell — he digs a watch hole 
near a corn field. Into this they creep, and are soon notified of 
the presence of a herd of elephants by the crunching of the 



294 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

crisp grain. It is dark, but by and by one approaclies witliin 
twelve paces. Taking the range of the shoulder as well as he 
can, the contents of " Baby " are sent on their murderous errand. 
It was then safe to beat a retreat. Next morning the elephant 
is found near the pit. He is still standing, but soon drops dead. 
The shot was fatal, but not for several hours. And now such a 
time as there is among the natives. Three hundred of them 
gather, and soon dispose of the carcass with their knives and 
lances. The huge beast was ten feet six inches in height. 

B}'- January, the waters in the rivers and gulches have sub- 
sided enough to admit of travel. Katchiba gives us three oxen 
— two for pack animals, and one for Mrs. Baker to ride upon. 
With these, and a few attendants, we start for the south. But 
Ibrahim precedes us with an armed body of Turks. lie is pene- 
trating the country further in search of ivory and booty. It is 
well for us to follow in his trail, unless forsooth he should get 
into a fight. 

The Colonel walks eighteen miles to Farajoke where he pur- 
chases a riding ox. On January 13, Shooa is reached. It is a 
veritable land of plenty. There are fowls, goats, butter, milk, 
and food of all kinds. The natives are delighted to see us, and 
are greedy for our beads and trumpery. They bring presents of 
flour and milk to Mrs. Baker, who showers upon them her trinkets 
in return. Tlie people are not unlike the Obbo's, but their 
agriculture is very superior. Our five days here are days of 
real rest and refreshment. 

We make an eight mile march to Fatiko, where the natives 
are still more friendly. But they insist on such vigorous 
shaking of hands and such tiresome ceremonies of introduction, 
that we must hasten away. And now our march is still through 
a beautiful country for several days. We gradually approach 
the Karuma Falls, close to the village of Atada, on the opposite 
side of the river. It is the Unyoro country whose king is 
Kamrasi. 

The natives swarm on their bank of the river, and soon a 
fleet of canoes comes across. Their occupants are informed that 
Col. Baker wishes to see the king, in order to thank him for 



SOUECES OF THE NILE. 295 

the kindness lie had extended to the two Englishmen, Speke 
and Grant on their visit. The boatmen are suspicious, for only 
a short time before a partj of Arab traders had allied them- 
selves with Kamrasi's enemies and slain 300 of his people. It 
takes two whole days to overcome the king's suspicions, and 
many gifts of beads and trinkets. Finally we are ferried across, 
but oh! the tedious wait to get a royal interview! And then 
the surprise, when it did come. 

There sits the king on a copper stool placed on a carpet of 
leopard skins, surrounded by his ten principal chiefs. He is six 
feet tall, of dark brown skin, pleasing countenance, clothed in a 
long rich robe of bark-cloth, with well dressed hands and feet, 
and perfectly clean. Baker explains his object in calling and 
gives rich presents, among which is a double barrelled gun. The 
king takes to the gun and orders it to be fired off. The 
attendants run away in fright, at which the king laughs heartily, 
as though he had discovered a new test for their courage or 
played a capital joke. He then makes return presents, among 
which are seventeen cows. 

Thus friendship is established. The king asks for our help 
against the Eiongas, his bitterest enemies. We decline, but in 
turn ask for porters and guides. The king promises heartily, 
but as often breaks his promises, for his object is to keep us 
with him as long as we have presents to give. 

These chiefs, or kings, of the native tribes are the greatest 
nuisances in Africa — not even excepting the mosquitoes. They 
make the traveller pay court at every stage of his journey, and 
they know the value of delay in granting a hearing. The 
wrongs of the humble negro are many. His faults are as many, 
and among them are his careless good humor and light heart- 
edness — things that in northern climes or under other circum- 
stances might be classed as redeeming traits. But the faults of 
the average African Jdng — there are exceptions to the rule — 
are such to try our patience in the extreme. He is as ignorant as 
his subjects, yet is complete master of their lives. His cruelty, 
rapacity and sensuality are nurtured in him from birth, and 
there is no antic he will not play in the name of his authority. 



296 SOUECES OF THE NILE. 

In his own eyes lie is a demi-god, yet lie is seen by visitors 
only as a dirty, freakish, cruel, tantalizing savage, insisting 
upon a court which has no seriousness about it. 

Accomplished and friendly as King Kamrasi seems to be, he 
is full of duplicity, cruelty, and rapacity. Speke and Grant com- 
plained of his inordinate greed, and we have just seen for what 
motive he delayed us for three weeks. And scarcely have we 
gone ten miles when he overtakes us, to ask for other presents 
and the Colonel's watch, for which he had taken a great fancy. 
On being refused this, he coolly informs the Colonel that he 
would send his party to the lake according to promise, but that 
he must leave Mrs. Baker behind with him. The Colonel 
draws his revolver and, placing it at the breast of the king, 
explains the insult conveyed in such a proposition in civilized 
countries, and tells him he would be warranted in riddling him 
on the spot, if he dared to repeat the request, or rather command. 
Mrs. Baker makes known her horror cf the proposition, and 
the crafty king, finding his cupidity has carried him too far, 
says he has no intention of oifending. "I will give you a wife 
if you want one," he continued, "and I thought you might 
give me yours. I have given visitors many pretty wives. 
Don't be offended. I will never mention the matter again." To 
make further amends he sends along with our party several 
women as luggage carriers, as far as to the next village. 

To show how prankish and pitiable royalty is among even 
a tribe like the Unyoro's, who dress with some care, and dis- 
dain the less intelligent tribes about them, it turned out that 
this Kamrasi was not the real king at all, but only a substitute, 
and that the regularly annointed Kamrasi was in a fit of the 
sulks off in his private quarters, all the time of our visit. 

The march is now a long one of eighteen days through the 
dense forests and swamps of the Kafoor River. Mrs. Baker is 
sick with fever incident to a sun-stroke, and has to be borne upon 
a litter most of the way. In crossing the Kafoor upon the 
"sponge," it yields to the weight of the footmen, and she is 
saved from sinking beneath the treacherous surface by the 
Colonel, who orders the men to quickly lay their burden down 



SOURCES OF THE NILE, 297 

and scatter. The "sponge" proves strong enougli to bear the 
weight of the Htter alone, and it is safely hauled on to a 
firmer part by her husband and an attendant. 

We are now near our goal and all the party are enthusiastic. 
Ascending a gentle slope, on a beautiful clear morning, the 
glory of our prize suddenly bursts upon us. There, like a sea 
of quicksilver, lays far beneath us the grand expanse of waters 
— the Luta Nzige then, but soon to be christened the Albert 
Nyanza. Its white waves break on a pebbly beach fifteen 
hundred feet below us. On the west, fifty or sixty miles dis- 
tant, blue mountains rise to a height of 7000 feet. Northward 
the gleaming expanse of waters seem limitless. Here is the 
reward of all our labor. It is a basin worthy of its great 
function as a gathering place of the headwaters of the Nile, 
which issue in a full grown stream from its northern end. 

Using Colonel Baker's own language, — "Long before I 
reached the spot I had arranged to give three English cheers 
in honor of the discovery, but now that I looked down upon 
tlie great inland sea lying nestled in the very heart of Africa^ 
and thought how vainly mankind had sought these sources 
throughout so many ages, and reflected that I had been the 
humble instrument permitted to unravel this portion of the 
great mystery when so many greater than I had failed, I felt 
too serious to vent my feelings in vain cheers for victory, and 
I sincerely thanked God for having guided and supported us 
through all dangers to the good end. As I looked down from 
the steep granite cliffs upon those welcome waters, on that vast 
reservoir which nourished Egypt and brought fertility where all 
was wilderness, on that great source so long hidden from man- 
kind ; that source of bounty and of blessings to millions of 
human beings ; and as one of the greatest objects in nature, I 
determined to honor it with a great name. As an imperishable 
memorial of one loved and mourned by our gracious Queen and 
deplored by every Englishman, I called the great lake ' the 
Albert Nyanza.' The Victoria and the Albert Lakes are the 
two sources of the Nile. My wife, who had followed me so 
devotedly, stood by my side, pale and exhausted — a wreck upon 



298 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

tlie shores of the great Albert Lake that we had so long 
striven to reach. No European foot had ever trod upon its 
sand, nor had the eyes of a white man ever scanned its vast 
expanse of water. We were the first; and this was the key to 
the great secret that even Julius Caesar yearned to unravel, but 
in vain." 

And now the lake is christened. We rush down to the 
shores and bathe our feet in its clear fresh waters. Then we 
prepare a frail canoe, large enough to carry our party of thirteen^ 
and manned with twenty oarsmen. In this we skirt the lake 
northward from where we first touch it at Yacovia. The 
journey is full of novelty. Every now and then we get a shot 
at a crocodile, or a hippopotamus, and herds of elephants are 
seen along the shores. Thunder storms are frequent, making 
the navigation dangerous. The heat at midday drives us into 
the shade. Our work hours are in the mornings and evenings. 
Here we pass under beetling precipices that line this eastern 
shore, down which jets of water — each a Nile source — are seen 
plunging from the height of a thousand feet. There we float 
through flat wastes of reeds, and water plants and floating rafts 
of vegetable matter in Qrery stage of growth and decay. 

On the thirteenth day we reach the point where the waters 
from Lake Yictoria Nyanza enter the Albert Nyanza. They pour 
in through the Victoria River, or as some call it, the Somerset 
River. Now arises a momentous question. Shall we go further. 
If we are not back in Gondokoro in a few weeks we may leave 
our bones in Central Africa. We are a fatigued, even a sick 
party, and the season is approaching when a w]jite man had 
better be away from under the Equator. The Colonel proposes 
to forego further navigation and return. Lady Baker, with a 
fervor the Colonel seems to have lost, proposes to go to the 
other end of the lake in order to make sure that it is an ulti- 
mate reservoir of the Nile. 

Away off northward from where we are, some thirty miles, 
can be seen with the glasses the outlet of the lake — the Nile. 
It is settled that the inflow from Victoria Nyanza and the out- 
let northward are thus close together. But is that outlet the 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 299 

Nile after all? Lady Baker wants to settle tliis question too, 




THE MURCHISON FALLS. 

and she proposes, after circumnavigating the lake and proving 



300 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

that it is an ultimate source, to descend the Kile through the 
northern outlet. But the Colonel urges want of time. The 
attendants tell horrible stories of dangerous falls and hostile 
natives. So we decide against Mrs. Baker, and, taking the Col- 
onel's advice, begin to ascend the Victoria Nile toward lake 
Victoria ISTyanza, that being in the direction of our homeward 
march. We go but a few miles till a new marvel greets us — 
the Murchison Falls. On either side of the river are beautiful 
wooded cliffs 300 feet high. Bold rocks jut out from an intensely- 
green foliage. Eushing through a gap in the rock directly 
ahead of us, the river, contracted from a broad stream above, 
grows narrower and narrov/er, till where the gorge is scarcely 
fifty yards wide, it makes one stupendous leap over a precipice 
120 feet high, into the dark abyss below. The river then widens 
and grows sluggish again. Anywhere can be seen numberless 
crocodiles. While the Colonel is sketching the Falls, one of 
these animals comes close to the boat. He cannot resist a shot 
at it. The canoemen are disturbed and allow the boat to get 
an ugly swing on them. It strikes into a bunch of reeds, when 
out rushes a huge hippopotamus in fright and bumps against the 
canoe, almost oversetting it. 

There are cataracts innumerable on the Nile, but this is its 
greatest water fall, and a majestic picture it is. Our return 
journey to Gondokoro repeats many of our foroier experiences. 
We revisit the same tribes and meet with the same adventures, 
Kartoum is reached in May, 1865. Then we go by boat to 
Berber, and thence by caravan across the desert to Souakim on 
the Eed Sea, where a steamer is taken for England, and where the 
Colonel receives the medal bestowed on him by the Eoyal 
Geographical Society. 

In concluding this long journey we must ever regret that 
Colonel Baker did not do more to make sure of the honors of 
his discovery. Since then Gordon Pasha and M. Gessi have 
navigated Albert Nyanza. They curtailed the proportions it 
showed on first maps, and proved that, as Lady Baker supposed, 
it had a southern inlet, which was traced for a hundred miles 
till it ended in a mighty ambatch swamp, or collection of 



SOUKCES OF THE NILE. 301 

stagnant waters, wliicTi may be counted as tlie Lake Nzige of 
the natives, and of wliicli Colonel Baker so often heard. 

These travellers also settled forever one of the delusions under 
which Livingstone ever labored, and that was, that the sources 
of the Nile must be sought as far south as the great Lake 
Tanganyika, and even further. 

Since then, other travellers have traced the whole course of 
the Yictoria Nile to Lake Victoria Nyanza, discovering on 
their way a new lake, Ibrahim. And this brings us to Yictoria 
Nyanza again, which must be studied more fully, for after all 
we may not have seen in Albert Nyanza, so much of an 
ultimate Nile reservoir as we thought. It is hard too, of course, 
to rob our travels of their glory, but we cannot bear laurels at 
the expense of after discovered truth. 

It was in 1858 that Speke and Grant, pushing their perilous 
way westward from Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa, dis- 
covered and partly navigated Lake Tanganyika, probably the 
greatest fresh water reservoir in Central Africa. On their 
retiirn journey, and while resting at Unyanyembe, Speke heard 
from an Arab source of a still larger lake to the north. 
Grant was suspicious of the information, and remained where 
he was, while Speke made a trial. After a three weeks march 
over an undulating country, intersected by streams flowing 
northward, he came in view (July 30, 1858), of the head of a 
deep gulf expanding to the north. Pursuing his journey along 
its eastern cliffs, he saw that it opened into an ocean-like 
expanse of water, girted by forests on the right and left, but 
stretching eastward and northward into space. He felt that he 
stood on a Nile source, but could not inquire further then. 

When he returned to England and made his discovery known, 
powerful arguments sprang up about these Nile sources. Speke 
and one school contended the Nile reservoirs were under the 
equator and that Victoria Nyanza was one of them, if not the 
only one. Burton and others contended that Tanganyika, and 
perhaps a series of lakes further south, must be the true 
sources. So in 1860 Speke and Grant were back in Africa, 
determined to solve the mystery. They were kept back by 



302 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

delays till 1862, when, as we have seen, they caught sight of 
the lake they sought. Keeping on high ground, they fol- 
lowed it northward to Uganda where they fell in with Mtesa, 
the king. Mtesa has been painted in all sorts of colors by dif- 
ferent explorers. Speke and Grant formed the worst possible 
opinion of him, but they passed through his dominions safely, 
till they came to the northern outlet of the lake — the Yictoria 
Nile. Taking for granted that this was the real Nile, they cut 
across the country to Gondokoro, where they met Baker on 
his southern march, as we have already seen. 

This unsatisfactory journey did not set controversy at rest. 
Speke's opponents ridiculed the idea of a body of water, 250 
miles long and 7000 feet above the sea level, existing right 
under the Equator. Moreover they denied that its northern out- 
let was the Nile, or if so, that there must be a southern inlet. 
All the old maps located the sources of the stream further south. 
Colonel Baker heard a native story, in 1869, to the effect that 
boats had gone from Albert Nyanza to Ujiji on lake Tangan- 
yika. Livingstone held firmly to the opinion that all these equa- 
torial lakes were one with Tanganyika — till he disproved it 
himself. He never was convinced that Yictoria Nyanza existed 
at all as Speke had mapped it, nor that it had any connection 
with the Nile River. 

Thus what Baker and Speke and Grant had been glorying in 
as great discoveries, but which they failed to establish by full 
research, w^as still a puzzle. They are not to be robbed of any 
honors, but it is not claiming too much to say that the real dis- 
coverer of the true Nile reservoir is due to the American Stan- 
ley. At least he resolved to solve the problem finally and set 
discussion at rest. He would establish the claims of Yictoria 
Nyanza to vastness and to its functions as a Nile source, or 
show it up as a humbug. 

Henry M. Stanley is no ordinary figure among African explorers. 
In tenacity of purpose, courage and endurance, he is second only 
to Livingstone. In originality, insight and crowning effort, he is 
ahead of all. He introduced a new method of African travel 
and brought a new power at his back. Already he had, under 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 



803 



the auspices of the New York Herald, made a successful Central 
African journey and "discovered Livingstone." On his present 
expedition he was accredited to both American and English 
papers, and bore the flags of the two countries. He travelle'd in 
a half scientific and half military fashion. 




He started from Zanzibar November 17, 1874. Let the reader 
keep in mind that this was his second exploring trip into Africa 
-the first having been made a few years before under the 
auspices of the New York Herald for the rescue of Livingstone 
If ahve Here, m his own words, is the gallant young leader's 
order of march : — ^ & 




o 
o 

!^ 



o 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 305 

"Four chiefs, a few hundred yards in front; next, twelve 
guides, clad in red robes of Jobo, bearing coils of wire; then a 
long file, two hundred and seventy strong, bearing cloth, wire, 
beads, and sections of the Lady Alice; after them, thirty-six 
women and ten boys, children of the chiefs, and boat-bearers, 
followed by riding-asses, Europeans, and gun-bearers; the long 
line closed by sixteen chiefs, who act as rearguard: in all, 
three hundred and fifty-six souls connected with the Anglo- 
American expedition. The lengthy line occupies nearly half a 
mile of the path." 

Mr. Stanley did not mean to be stopped on the route he had 
chosen by the objections of any native chief to the passage of' 
the little army through his territory. If the opposition were 
carried to the extent of a challenge of battle; the American 
explorer was prepared to accept it and fight his way through. 
In this way he counted on avoiding the long delays, the round- 
about routes, and the fragmentary results which had marked 
the efforts of previous travellers. It is an admirable method, if 
your main object is to get through the work rapidly, if yoa 
are strong enough to despise all assaults, and if you have no 
prospect of travelling the same road again. Its wisdom and 
justifiableness need not be discussed; but it may simply be 
remarked that this conjunction of campaigning and exploration 
gives an extra spice of danger and an exciting variet}^ to the 
narrative, which carries us back to the time when the Conqui- 
stadors of Spain and Portugal carved their rich conquests into 
the heart of Mexico and South America. 

He carried with him the sections of a boat, forty feet long, 
with which to explore the Victoria Nyanza, or any other lake 
or stream he might discover. It was named the "Lady Alice." 
He had only three English assistants— two Thames watermen 
by the name of Francis and Edward Pocock, and a clerk named 
Frederick Barker — none of whom emerged alive from the 
African wilds into which they plunged so light heartedly. 

Unyanyembe is the half-way station between Zanzibar and the 
lakes of interior Africa. It is simply a headquarters for slave 
stealers and a regular trading den for land pirates. Stanley 
20 



306 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

turned to the northwest before reaching this place, and in about 
the fifth degree south latitude came upon the water shed which 
separates the waters trending northward from those running 
southward. Here in a plain 5000 feet above the sea, and 2500 
miles in a straight line from the Mediterranean, seemed clearly 
to be the most southerly limit of the JSTile basin. 

And here Stanley's real difficulties began. The party suffered 
from want of food and lost their way. Sickness fell upon the 
camp, and Edward Pocock died. The natives themselves were hos- 
tile, and Mirambo, chief of the Ruga-Eugas, a noted freebooter, 
was in the neighborhood with his band of cut throats. By and 
by the storm clouds burst in war, not with the bandits however, 
but with the Ituru tribe. The battle was fought for three 
days against great odds. It resulted in the complete discomfit- 
ure of the foe, but with a loss to. Stanley of twenty-four killed 
and wounded. The weakened expedition moved on bearing 
twenty-five men on the sick list. 

They were now in the valley of the Shimeeyu, an affluent 
of Victoria Nyanza from the south. It was followed through 
dense forests over which loomed enormous bare rocks like 
castles, and hillocks of splintered granite and gneiss, and then 
through fine rolling plains, rich in pasture lands, hedge inclosed 
villages and herds of wild and tame animals. Compared with 
what he had passed through it was a grand and glorious 
country. 

Provisions could be had readily and cheaply — corn, potatoes, 
fruit, goats and chickens. The half starved men indulged in 
^easting and marched with recovered strength and confidence. 
Murmuring and doubt died away. The native attendants who 
had shown unmistakable proofs of faithfulness in the midst of 
trial were specially rewarded. 

The lake was near at hand. As they dipped through the 
troughs of land, mounted ridge after ridge, crossed water courses 
and ravines, passed cultivated fields and through villages smelling 
of cattle, a loud hurrahing in front told that the great Lake 
Victoria Nyanza had been sighted. It was February 27, 1875. 
The spot was Kagehyi, not far from where Speke had struck it. 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 307 

Six Imndred feet beneath tliem, and three miles awaj, lay a long 
broad arm of water shining like silver in the bright smishine, 
bordered by lines of green waving rushes, groves of trees and 
native huts. 

No time was lost in getting the " Lady Alice " ready, and on 
March 8 she was launched and her prow turned northward. 
Her occupants were Stanle}^, a steersman, and ten oarsmen or 
sailors. Frank Pocock and Barker were left at Kagehyi in charge 
of the remainder of the party. 

Now began a journey full of thrilling events. Almost every 
day brought its danger from storm, shoal, animal or hostile 
natives. For weeks the shores of the Nyanza stretched on, promon- 
tory behind promontory, and still the tired mariners toiled along 
the margin of the unknown lands on their lee, and out and in 
among the numerous islands. From the starting point round the 
eastern shore, the coast shows a succession of bold headland and 
deep bay, at the head of which is generally a river draining the 
highlands behind. Sometimes a dark mountain mass, covered 
with wood, overhangs the waters, rising abruptly to a height of 
three thousand feet or more ; and then again there will inter- 
vene between the hills and the lake an open plain, grazed over 
by herds of zebras, antelopes, and giraffes. There is great 
diversity also in the islands. Many of them are bare masses of 
rock, supporting no green blade ; others are swathed to the stim- 
mit in masses of rank intertwisted vegetation that excludes the 
perpendicular rays of the sun. Some of the smallest are highly 
cultivated, and occupied by a dense population ; one or two of 
the -largest, such as iTgingo, betray no sign of human beings 
inhabiting their dismal shades. 

Generally the region is rocky, broken, hilly, and intensely 
tropical in character. Behind the coast ranges absolutely noth- 
ing is known beyond a few vague reports picked up from native 
sources. The rivers are not large, and it is not probable that 
they have their sources so far off as the great snowy range that 
runs down midway between the lake and the east coast of 
Africa. Some geographers have chosen to call this chain by 
the old name of "Mountains of the Moon," throwing the old 



308 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

land mark from the soutliern borders of Sahara to a point quite 
south of the equator and at right angles with their former 
direction. Between the lake and these snow-capped mountains 
roam the Mdai, a fierce pastoral tribe that subsists by plunder- 
ing its weaker neighbors. 

Stanley heard of hills that smoked in these ranges, and prob- 
ably they contain active volcanoes. He also heard of the mythi- 
cal Lake Baringo further north. This lake has appeared almost 
everywhere on African maps. If it is ever found, it may prove 
to be the reservoir of the Ashua an important Nile tributary, 
after the stream leaves both Yictoria and Albert Nyanza. 

Before reaching the northermost point of the lake the "Lady 
Alice" had passed through several disastrous storms and escaped 
many perilous shoals. She had also met the fierce opposition 
of the Victoria hippopotamus. This behemoth of an animal 
abounds here, as it does in all the waters of tropical Africa; 
but while in most other places it refrains from attacking man, 
unless provoked, it was found on the Victoria • Lake to be of a 
peculiarly bellicose disposition. A few hours after starting on 
his voyage, Stanley was driven oft" the land and put to ignomini- 
ous flight by a herd of savage hippopotami sallying out towards 
him open-mouthed. On another occasion, the rowers had to pull 
for bare life to escape the furious charge of a monster whose 
temper had been ruffled by the boat coming in contact with his 
back as he was rising to the surface to breathe. Probably the 
hippopotamus of the Victoria would be no more courageous than 
his neighbors if he were met with on land. There he always cuts a 
ridiculous figure, as he waddles along with his short legs and 
bulky body in search of the grass on which he feeds. He 
seems to know that he is at a disadvantage on terra firma, Avhich, 
he seldom visits except by night. When interrupted, he makes 
the best of his way back to the water, where his great strength 
always makes him a formidable antagonist. On the Victoria 
Nyanza the inhabitants do not seem to have discovered the methods 
of kilhng him practised by the natives of the Zambesi, by 
capturing him in pit falls, or setting traps that bring a heavy 
log, armed with a long iron spike, down on his stupid skull. 



SOUECES OF THE NILE. 309 

But these were not the only ugly customers the crew of the 
"Lady Alice" had to contend with on the Victoria Nyauza. 
Frequently when the boat neared the shore, lithe' figures could 
be seen flitting between the trees and savage eyes peering at 
her through the dense foliage. If an attempt were made to 
land a wild looking crowd would swarm upon the shore, pois- 
ing their spears threateningly or placing their arrows in their 
bows. Though these forms are not so terrible as the Eed 
Indian in war paint or the wild Papuan with his frizzly mop of 
hair, their natural hideousness is pretty well increased by 
tattooing and greasy paint. They are treacherous, cruel, vindic- 
tive, and one cast away on their shores would stand a poor 
chance of telling his own story. 

At a point near the northeastern extremity of the lake Mr. 
Stanley was induced to come close to shore by the friendly 
gestures of half-a-dozen natives. As the boat was pulled nearer, 
the group on the shore rapidly increased, and it was thought 
prudent to halt. Instantly there started out of the jungle a 
forest of spears, and a crowd of yelling savages rushed down in 
hot haste to the margin, lest their hospitable intentions towards 
the strangers should be balked. The boat, however, to the 
astonishment of these primitive black men, hoisted a great sail 
to the favoring land breeze, which carried it out to an island 
where the crew could camp and sleep in safety for the night. 
A little further on, while off the island of Ugamba, a large 
native canoe, manned by forty rowers and adorned with a 
waving mane of long grasses, was pulled confidently towards 
the mysterious craft. After reconnoitering it for a little, they 
edged up alongside, half of the occupants of the canoe standing 
up and brandishing their tufted spears. These visitors had 
been drinking freely of pom be to keep up their courage. They 
were noisy, impudent, and obstreperous; and finding that the 
white man and his companions remained quiet and patient, they 
began to reel tipsily about the boat, shout out their drunken 
choruses, and freely handle the property and persons of the strangers. 
Gradually they grew still more unpleasantly aggressive. One 
drunken rascal whirled his sling over Stanley's head and, cheered 



310 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

by liis companions, seemed about to aim the stone at the white 
man. Saddenlj Stanley, who had his revolver ready in his 
hand, fired a shot into the water. In an instant the boat was 
clear of the intruders, every one of whom had plunged intotl.e 
water at sound of the pistol, and was swimming lustily for the 
shore. With some little trouble their fears were allayed and 
the humbled roisterers, sobered by their dip, came meekly back 
for their abandoned canoe. Presents were exchanged and all 
parted good friends. 

Pie did not fare so well with the Wavuma tribe. They 
attracted Stanley's attention by sending out a canoe loaded with 
provisions and gifts. But shoreward suddenly appeared a whole 
fleet of canoes, evidently bent on surrounding the "Lady Alice." 
As her crew bent to their oars in order to escape, a storm of 
lances came upon them from the first canoe, whose captain 
held up a string of beads in a tantalizing manner which he had 
stolen from the white man's boat. Stanley fired upon him and 
doubled him up in his boat. Then using his larger rifle he 
punctured the foremost of the other canoes with heavy bullets 
below the Avater line, so that they had enough to do to keep 
them from sinking. They ceased to give chase and the "Lady 
Alice " escaped. 

Directly north of Victoria JSTyanza is Uganda or the country of 
the Waganda,* over which King Mtesa presides. Stanley struck 
the country on the next day after his adventure with the Wav- 
uma. It was a revelation to him. He fancied he had, in a night, 
passed from Pagan Africa to Mohammedan Europe or Asia. 
Instead of the stones and spear thrusts of the Wavuma he met 
with nothing save courtesy and hospitality. In place of naked 
howling savages he now saw bronze-colored people, clean, 
neatly clad, with good houses, advanced agriculture, well adapted 
industry, and considerable knowledge of the arts. 



*]SroTE:-In Eastern and Central Africa, from the Lakes of the Nile to Hottentotland 
the native races belong to the Bantu division of the African stock. They are not so dark 
as, and ni many respects differ from, the true negroes of the Western or Atlantic coast, 
iliroughout this entu-e Bantu division the prefix "U" means a country. Thus U-ganda, 
!f«^?.L*''*iJ-V*^'y w Ganda. So "Wa," or in some places '^Ba," "Ma" or "Ama," means 
Er A ^'n 7, "f ^^:^^}^^ means the people of Uganda. So vpould Ba-ganda. Ma-ganda. 
"IV^no" '^"»an t^^ r.J^^^^l.f^^^ i.^"?"^??.i ...^';?^n4fi is, the language of the Uganda, 
assisted. 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 811 

The village cliief approached attired in a white shirt, and a 
fine cloak of bark-cloth having over it a monkey skin fur. On 
his head was a handsome cap, on his feet sandals. His attend- 
ants were clothed in the same style, though less costly. He 
smilingly bade the strangers welcome, spread before them a 
feast of dressed kid, ripe bananas, clotted milk, sweet potatoes 
and eggs, with apologies for having been caught unprepared for 
his guests. 

Stanley looked on in wonder. It was a land of sunshine and 
plenty — a green and flowery Paradise set between the brilliant 
sky and the pure azure of the lake. Care and want seem 
never to have intruded here. There was food and to spare 
growing wild in the woods or in the cultivated patches around 
the snug homesteads. Every roomy, dome-shaped hut, had its 
thatched portico where the inhabitants chatted and smoked. 
Surrounding them were court-yards, with buildings which served 
as barns, kitchens and wash-houses, all enclosed in trimly kept 
hedges. Outside was the peasants garden where crops of 
potatoes, yams, pease, kidney-beans and other vegetables grew 
of a size that would make a Florida gardner envious. Border- 
ing the gardens were patches of tobacco, coffee, sugar-cane, and 
castor oil plant, all for family use. Still further beyond were 
fields of maize and other grains, and plantations of banana, 
plantain, and fig. Large commons afforded pasturage for flocks 
of goats and small, white, harmless cattle. 

The land is of inexhaustible fertility. The sunshine is unfail- 
ing; drought in this moist climate is unknown; and the air is 
cooled and purified by the breezes from the lake and from the 
mountains. Within his own inclosure the peasant has enough and 
to spare for himself and his household, both of luxuries 
and necessaries. His maize fields furnish him with the staff 
of life, and the fermented grain yields the " pombe," which 
he regards almost as much a requisite of existence as bread 
itself. The grinding of flour and the brewing of beer are 
all performed under his own eye by his family. The fig-tree 
yields him the bark out of which his clothes are made; but the 
banana is, perhaps, the most indispensable of the gifts of nature 



312 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

in these climes. It supplies him, says Stanley, with "bread, 
potatoes, dessert, wine, beer, medicine, house and fence, bed, cloth, 
cooking-pot, table-cloth, parcel- wrapper, thread, cord, rope, sponge, 
bath, shield, sun-hat, and canoe. With it, he is happy, fat, and 
thriving; without it, a famished, discontented, woe-begone 
wretch." The banana grows to perfection in Uganda; groves of 
it embower every village, and the Waganda in addition to being 
fat and prosperous have plenty of leisure for the arts of war 
and peace. 

They are unfortunately inclined to war, though they make 
cloth, tan skins, work in metals, and build houses and canoes. 
Even literature is not unknown among them. Well might 
Speke have said of Eipon Falls at the outlet of the Nile, with 
"a wife and family, a yacht and a gun, a dog and a rod, one 
might here be supremely happy and never wish to visit the 
haunts of civilization again." 

Word is sent to the king of the arrival of the strangers. 
An escort comes inviting them to the court. The new comer 
quite eclipsed the village chiefs in the gorgeousness of his 
apparel, A huge plume of cock's feathers surmounted an elab- 
orately worked head-dress. A crimson robe hung about him 
with a grace worthy an ancient Eoman, while over it was hung 
a snow-white goat-skin. The progress to the headquarters of 
the court was conducted with due pomp and circumstance. 
Every step Stanley's wonderment and admiration increased ; each 
moment he received new proofs that he had fallen among a 
people as different from those whom his previous wanderings 
had made him acquainted with as are white Americans from 
Choctaws. Emerging from the margin of dense forests and 
banana and plantain groves on the lake shores, the singular 
beauty of the land revealed itself to him. Wherever he turned 
his eyes there was a brilliant play of colors, and a boldness 
and diversity of outline such as he had never before seen. 
Broad, straight, and carefully-kept roads led through a rolling, 
thickly-peopled country clad in perennial green. Now the path 
would dive down into a hollow, where it was shaded by the 
graceful fronds of plantains and other tropical trees, where a 



314 SOUECES OF THE NILE. 

stream murmured over the stones, and the air was filled with 
the fragrance of fruit; and then again it would crest a ridge, 
from whence a magnificent prospect could be obtained of the 
sea-like expanse of the lake, with its wooded capes and islands, 
the dim blue lines of the distant hills, and the fruitful and 
smiling country lying between, its soft, undulating outline ol' 
forest- covered valley and grassy hill sharply broken by gigantic 
table topped masses of gray rocks and profound ravines. 

At length crowning the summit of a smooth hill appeared 
King Mtesa's capital, Eubaga. A number of tall huts clustered 
around one taller than the rest from which waved the imperial 
standard of the Uganda. A high cane fence surrounds the court 
with gates opening on four broad avenues that stretch to the 
bottom of the hill. These are lined with fences and connected 
with paths shaded with groves of banana, fig and other fruit 
trees, and amid these groves are the houses of the commonalty. 
After due delay — court etiquette is even more tedious and cere- 
monious in Africa than Europe — Stanley is ushered into the 
presence of the king, seated in his great audience hall, and sur- 
rounded by a host of chiefs, warriors, pages, standard-bearers, 
executioner^, drummers, fifers, clowns, dwarfs, wizards, medicine 
men, slaves and other retainers. 

And here we have a fine opportunity to compare the notes of 
two observers of the king's receptions. Stanley had a second 
interview at the "royal palace," on which occasion the king 
received also M. Linant De Bellefonds, sent by Gordon Pasha on 
a mission to Uganda. The monarch prepared a surprise for 
him by having Stanley by his side. But let De Bellefonds 
speak. 

"On entering the court I am greeted with a frightful uproar. 
A thousand instruments produce the most discordant and deaf- 
ening sounds. Mtesa's bodyguard, carrying guns, present arms 
on my appearance. The king is standing at the entrance to the 
reception hall. I approach and bow like a Turk. We shake 
hands. I perceive a sun-burned European by the king's side, 
whom I take to be Cameron. We all enter the reception room 
— a room 15 feet wide by 60 feet long, its roof supported by 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 315 

two rows of light pillars, making an aisle, wliicli is fil]ed with 
chief officers and guards, the latter armed. Mtesa takes his seat 
on the throne, which is like a wooden office chair. His feet 
rest on a cushion. The whole is in the centre of a leopard 
skin spread upon a Smyrna rug. Before him is a highly- 
polished elephant's tusk, at his feet two boxes containing fet- 
ishes, on either side a lance of copper and steel. At his feet 
are two scribes. The king behaves dignifiedly and does not 
lack an air of distinction. His dress is faultless — a white 
conftan finished with a red band, stockings, slippers, vest of 
black and gold, a turban with a silver plate on top, a sword 
with an ivory hilt and a staffi I show my presents, but royal 
dignity forbids him to show any curiosity. I say to the travel- 
ler on his left 'Have I the honor to address Mr. Cameron?' 
He says, 'JSTo sir; Mr. Stanley.' I introduce myself. We bow 
low, and our conversation ends for the moment." 

Who is this singular Mtesa and how has his more singular 
fabric of empire been built up in the heart of savage Africa? 

All around is the night of Pagan darkness, ignorance, and 
cruelty. Here, in the land of the Waganda, if there is, as 
yet, no light to speak of, there is a ruddy tinge in the 
midst of the blackness that seems to give promise of approaching 
dawn. If the people are still blood-thirsty, revengeful, and 
fond of war and pillage, they have learned ' some lessons in 
observing law and order; they practice some useful arts; they 
observe many of the decencies of life, and in the cleanliness of 
their houses and persons they are examples to some European 
countries. The Waganda themselves have a high opinion of 
their own importance; and their legends carry back their origin 
to what, for an African tribe, is a remote past. The story, as 
related by them to Captain Speke, is as follows: — 

"Eight generations ago a sportsman from Unyoro, by name 
Uganda, came with a pack of dogs, a woman, a spear, and a 
shield, hunting on the left bank of the Katonga Valley, not far 
from the lake. He was but a poor man, though so successful 
in hunting that vast numbers flocked to him for flesh, and 
became so fond of him as to invite him to be their king. At 



316 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

first Uganda hesitated. Then the people, hearing his name, said 
• well at any rate let the country between the Nile and the 
Katonga be called Uganda and let your name be Kimera the 
first king of Uganda.' The report of these proceedings reached 
the ears of the king o'f Unyoro, who merely said, 'The poor 
creature must be starving, allow him to feed where he likes.' 

" Kimera assumed authority, grew proud and headstrong, 
punished severely and became magnificent. He was content 
with nothing short of the grandest palace, a throne to sit on, 
the largest harem, the smartest officers, the best dressed people, 
a menagerie for pleasure and the best of everything. Armies 
were formed and fleets of canoes built for war. Highways were 
cut from one end of the country to the other and all the rivers 
were bridged. No house could be built without its necessary 
out buildings and to disobey the laws of cleanliness was death. 
He formed a perfect system of paternal government according 
to his own ideas, and it has never declined, but rather improved." 

Stanley heard from Sabadu, the court historian of Uganda, a 
somewhat diffe"rent story. According to him Kimera did not 
found the government but was only one of a long list of thirty- 
five monarchs. He however first taught his countrymen the 
delight of sport. He was, in fact, the Nimrod of Uganda 
genealogy, and a mighty giant to boot, the mark of whose 
enormous foot is still pointed out on a rock near the lake, 
where he had slipped while hurling a spear at an elephant. 
The first of the Waganda was Kintu, a blameless priest, who 
objected to the shedding of blood — a scruple which does not 
seem to have been shared by any of his descendants — and 
who came into this Lake Eegion when it was absolutely empty 
of human inhabitants. From Kintu, Sabadu traced the descent 
of his master through a line of glorious ancestry, — warriors and 
legislators, who performed the most astounding deeds of valor 
and wisdom,— and completely proved that, whatever may be the 
condition of history, fiction, at least, flourishes at the court of 
Mtesa.^ Passing over a hero who crushed hosts of his enemies 
by flymg up into the air and dropping great rocks upon their 
heads, and a doughty champion who took his stand on a hill 



SOUHCES OF THE NILE. 317 

and there for tliree days withstood the assaults of all comers, 
catching the spears thrown at him and flinging them back, 
until he was surrounded by a wall of two thousand slain, we 
come to Suna, the father of Mtesa, who died only a little before 
Speke and Grant's visit to the country. Suna, by all accounts, 
was a gloomy monarch, who sat with his eyes broodingly bent 
on the ground, only raising them to give the signal to his 
executioners for the slaughter of some of his subjects. It is 
told of this sanguinary despot that one day he caused 800 of 
his people to be killed in his sight, and that he made a ghastly 
pyramid of the bodies of 20,000 Wasoga prisoners, inhabitants 
of the opposite shore of the Victoria Nile. 

The chiefs rejected his eldest son as his successor and chose 
the mild-eyed Mtesa, The " mild-eyed " signalized his election 
by killing all his nearest relatives and his father's best coun- 
sellors. He was drunk with power and pomhe. It was now that 
Speke and Grant saw him. They describe him as a wretch 
who was peculiarly liable to fits of frenzy, during which he 
would order the slaughter of those who were his best friends an 
hour before, or arming himself with a bundle of spears would 
go into his harem and throw them indiscriminately among his 
wives and children. 

It is said a change came over him by being converted to 
Mohammedanism. He gave up his drinking and many Pagan 
practices of his fathers, though still believing in wizards and 
charms. The Moslem Sabbath is observed and Arabic literature 
has been introduced. 

Stanley describes him as a tall slim man of thirty years, with 
fine intelligent features and an expression in which amiability is 
blended with dignity. His eyes are " large lustrous and lambent." 
His skin is a reddish brown and wonderfully smooth. In council, 
he is sedate and composed ; in private, free and hilarious. Of his 
intelligence and capacity there can be no question. Nor can it 
be doubted that he has a sincere liking for white men. His 
curiosity about civilized peoples, their customs, manufactures and 
inventions is insatiable, and he seems to have once entertained 
th^ idea of modeling his kingdom after a civilized pattern. 



318 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

He showed "Stamlee" (Stanley) and other white visitors the 
greatest hospitahtj. Yet there was something cat-like in his 
caressing and insinuating ways. His smiles and attentions could 
not be relied on any more than the fawning oY the leopard, 
which the kings of Uganda take for their royal badge. 

Stanley tried to convert him from his Moslem faith to Chris- 
tianity. He got so far as to have him Avrite the Ten Command- 
ments for daily persual and keep the Christian along with the 
Moslem Sabbath. This was on his first visit. But on his return 
to Eubaga he found the king had gone to war with the Wavu- 
ma. He went along and had excellent opportunity to notice the 
king's power. 

His estimate of Mtesa's fighting strength on this occasion was 
an army of 150,000 men, and as many more camp followers in 
the shape of women and children. There were not less than 
500 large canoes, over seventy feet in length, requiring 8500 
paddlers. The whole population of his territory he estimated at 
3,500,000, and its extent at 70,000 square miles. 

The Wavuma could not muster over 200 canoes, but they 
were more agile on the water than the Uganda, so that the odds 
were not so great after all. Day after day they kept Mtesa's 
fleet at bay, and readily paddled out of reach of his musketry 
and howitzers planted on a cape which extended into the lake. 
Mtesa got very mad and began to despair. He applied to all 
his sorcerers and medicine men, and at length came to Stanley, 
who suggested the erection of a causeway from the point of the 
cape to the enemy's shore. It proved to be too big a task, and 
was given over. But the American pushed his project of con- 
verting the king, now that he stood in the position of adviser. 
He succeeded, as he thought. But a few days later the Uganda 
fleet suffered a reverse, and the newly fledged Christian was 
found running aiound in a frenzy, shouting for the 'blood of his 
enemies and giving orders for the roasting alive of a prisoner 
who had been taken. Stanley gave his pupil a well-deserved 
scolding; and thinking it was time to interfere in the war, 
which was hindering him from continuing his journey, he put 
into operation a little project he had conceived, and which is 



SOURCES OF THE NILE, 319 

wortliy of being placed beside tlie famous device of the "horse" 
by which, the Greeks captured Troj town. Joining three 
canoes' together, side by side, by poles lashed across them, he 
constructed on this platform a kind of wicker-work fort, which 
concealed a crew and garrison of two hundred men. This 
strange structure, covered by streamers, and with the drums and 
horns giving forth a horrible din, moved slowly towards the 
enemy's stronghold, propelled by the paddles working between the 
canoes. The Wavuma watched with terror the approach of 
this awfal apparition, which bore down upon them as if moved 
by some supernatural force. When it had advanced to within 
hailing distance, a voice was heard issuing from the mysterious 
visitant, which called on the Wavuma to submit to Mtesa or 
destruction would come on them. The bold islanders were awe- 
struck. A council of war was held, when a chief stepped to 
the shore and cried, "Eeturn, O Spirit; the war is ended!" A 
peace was sealed with the usual tribute of ivory and female 
slaves for the king's harem. 

The next morning the king's war drums suddenly sounded the 
breaking up of his immense encampment on tlie shore, and Stan- 
ley discovered it to be on fire in a hundred places. All had to 
flee for their lives, and he thinks hundreds must have perished 
in the confusion. The king denied that he was responsible for 
an order which resulted in such a horror, but Stanley thought 
he was guilty of a piece of unwarranted cruelty, which illy became 
his new profession of faith. From that time on, his views began 
to change. Ingenious, enterprising, intelligent he foand them, 
above any other African tribe he had met with. Their scrupu- 
lous cleanliness, neatness, and modesty cover a multitude of 
faults ; but for the rest, " they are crafty, fraudful, deceiving, 
lying, thievish knaves, taken as a whole, and seem to be born 
with an uncontrollable love of gaining wealth by robbery, vio 
lence and murder." Notwithstanding first impressions to the 
contrary, they are more allied to the Choctaw than the Anglo- 
Saxon, and are simply clever savages, whom prosperity and a 
favorable climate have helped several stages on the long, toil- 
some road towards civilization. There is no call upon us after 



320 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

all to envy their luxurious lives of ease and plenty under the 
siiade of their bowers of vine, fig, and plantain trees— 

" For we hold the gray Barbarian lower than the Christian child." 

Nevertheless, Uganda, from its fertility and its situation at the 
outlet of the great fresh- water sea of the Nyanza, must be regarded 
as one of the most hopeful fields of future commercial enterprise, 
and its people as among the most promising subjects for mis- 
sionary and philanthropic efibrts in Central Africa. 

As for the mighty Mtesa, little has been seen or heard of him 
since his friend " Stamlee " parted from him. Colonel Chaille 
Long, late of the Confederate Army, afterwards in the service of 
Egypt, who had seen him a few months before, did not think he 
would ever turn out to be a humane monarch. But that he has 
not lost his interest in his white friends and in the marvels of 
civilization was shown in the spring of 1880, when a deputation 
of four of his chiefs appeared in London on a tour of observa- 
tion. 

De Bellefonds, mentioned above as meeting Stanley at King 
Mtesa's court, was murdered, with all his party, by the Unyoro, 
when on his way back to Gondokoro. Colonel Long went 
down the Victoria Nile from Lake Victoria Nyanza, and mid- 
way between the Victoria and Albert Nyanza discovered another 
great lake which he called Lake Ibrahim. 

The last white visitors to the JSTile reservoirs were an English 
party sent out to establish a Christian mission on Lake Victoria 
Nyanza. It consisted of Lieutenant Smith, and Messrs. Wilson 
and O'Neil. They took a small steamer along in sections from 
Zanzibar, and successfully floated the first steam craft on the 
bosom of the great lake. Wilson established himself at the 
court of King Mtesa. Smith and Wilson, while exploring the 
lake, were driven by a storm on the island of the Ukerewe, 
whose chief, Lukongeh, had been kind to Stanley. But no 
faith can be put in African princes. On December 7, 1877, 
Lukongeh attacked the missionary camp and massacred Smith 
and Wilson with all their black attendants. With this dismal 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 821 

incident the history of the exploration of Victoria Nyanza 
closes for the present, except as we shall have to follow Stanley 
after leaving the court of King Mtesa on his trip down the 
western shore of the lake. It must be remembered that he was 
twice to see the king, once on his tour of circumnavigation, and 
then after he had completed it. 

After he rounded the northern end of the lake and was well 
on his way down its western shores, he met with the most 
perilous of his adventures. The voyagers were nearly out of 
provisions. They had passed days of weary toil under the 
blistering tropical sun, and dismal nights of hunger on shelter- 
less, uninhabited islands, when the grassy slopes of Bumbireh 
hove in sight. Numerous villages were seen in the shelter of 
the forest, with herds of cattle, maize fields, and groves of fruit 
trees, and altogether the island seemed to offer a haven of rest 
and plenty to the weary mariners. There was no food left in 
the boat, and a landing had to be attempted at all risks. The 
look of the Bumbireh natives was not so prepossessing as that 
of their land. They rushed down from their villages, shouting 
war-songs and brandishing their clubs and spears. JSTo sooner 
had the boat reached shallow water, than they seized upon her, 
and dragged her, crew and all, high up on the rocky beach. 
"The scene that ensued," says the traveller, "baffles description. 
Pandemonium — all the devils armed — raged around us. A 
forest of spears was levelled; thirty or forty bows were drawn 
taut ; as many barbed arrows seemed already on the wing ; 
knotty clubs waved above our heads; two hundred screaming 
black demons jostled each other, and struggled for room to vent 
their fury, or for an opportunity to deliver one crushing blow 
OT thrust at us." 

In point of fact, no thrust was delivered, and possibly none 
was intended; but the situation was certainly an unpleasant one. 
The troop of gesticulating, yelling savages increased every 
second ; and the diabolical noise of a number of drums increased 
the hub-bub. The islanders began to jostle their guests, to pil- 
fer, and at last they seized upon the oars. Stanley put his com- 
panions on their guard and fired his double-barreled elephant 
21 



322 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

rifle into the crowd. Two men fell. He increased the panic 
among them, by two rounds of duck shot, and in the midst of 
the confusion the "Lady Alice" was run down the bank and 
pushed far into the water. But this scarcely improved the posi- 
tion. The enemy swarmed on the shore and threw stones and 
lances at the crew. Canoes were making ready to pursue. 
Stanley ordered the crew to tear up the bottom boards for pad- 
dles and to pull away with all their might. All were doing the 
best they could, but a paralysis seized them when they discov- 
ered they were directly in the track of two huge hippopotami 
which had been started up by the noises of the melee, and 
enraged to the attacking point. The elephant rifle was again 
brought into requisition and the course cleared by planting an 
explosive bullet in each animal's head. 

Four of the canoes of the natives were now upon them. 
They meant war in earnest. The elephant rifle was used with 
effect. Four shots killed five of the natives and sank two 
canoes. The other two stopped to pick up their companions. 
They shouted in their rage, as they saw their prize escape, 
"go, and die in the Nyanza!" 

Dismal days of famine and hardship followed. A storm 
overtook them and tossed them for hours, drenched with spray 
and rain. They had but four banaiias on board. Happily 
another island was sighted and reached, which proved to be 
uninhabited. There they obtained food, shelter and much needed 
rest. Most travellers would have given Bumbireh a wide berth 
in the future. Not so Stanley. He pursued his course to 
Kagehyi, his starting point, having circumnavigated the lake in 
60 days. There he assembled his own forces, and added recruits 
loaned by King Mtesa. With 230 spearmen and 60 musketeers 
he put back to the offending island determined to punish the 
two or three thousand natives they found ranged along the 
shores. They held their own with slings and arrows against 
the approach of the boats for an hour. But at length they 
were put to flight and Stanley considered he had wiped out the 
insult, *-hough they appear to have been pretty well punished 
befpre. 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 323 

During his two months' absence Frederick Barker died at 
Kagehyi. This sad event was one of the items of heavy cost 
attending great feats of exploration. It left Stanley with ba/- 
one English companion. 

Stanley's exploration of Yictoria ISTyanza confirmed in part, 
Speke's discovery and theories. It showed that it was a Nile 
reservoir, though not an ultimate source, 21,000 square miles 
in extent. Excellent havens, navigable streams and fertile islands 
were revealed for the first time. Rich and beautiful countries 
are romantically pictured to us. 

After having paid court to King Mtesa a second time, as 
already described, the time came for Stanley to extend his 
journey. He chose to follow the line of the Equator westward 
with the hope of striking a southern extension of Baker's 
Albert Nyanza. He departed from Mtesa's old capital, Ulagalla, 
laden with presents and food, and accompanied by a hundred 
Uganda warriors. Stanley, in turn, gave bountiful parting pres- 
ents, and even remembered the chief Lukongeh of Ukerewe, 
who showed his appreciation of this kindness by murdering the 
very next white visitors — Smith and O'Neill, as above narrated. 

Further on, near the boundary between Uganda; and Unyoro, 
a body of 2000 Waganda spearmen joined Stanley, making a 
force of nearly 3000 souls — quite too large for practical explora- 
tion as the sequel proved. The path led through scenes of sur- 
passing beauty and fertility, and of a character that changed 
from soft tropical luxuriance to Alpine magnificence. 

After getting away from the forest covered lowlands of the 
lake shore, they emerge into a rolling country dotted with ant 
hills and thinly sprinkled with tamarisks and thorny acacias. 
Then come rougher ways and wilder scenes. The land-swells 
are higher, the valleys deeper. Rocks break thi^ough the sur- 
face, and the slopes are covered with splintered granite. The 
streams that were warm and sluggish, are now cold and 
rapid. By and by mountains set in, at first detached masses and 
then clearl}'- defined ranges, rising 9000 to 10,000 feet on the right 
hand and the left. Cutting breezes and chilly mists take the place of 
intense tropical heats. At length the monarch of mountains in 



324 SOURCES OF THE NILE. 

this part of Africa comes into view and is named Mount Gor- 
don Bennett. It lifts its head, at a distance of 40 miles north 
of their route, to a height of 15,000 feet, and seems to be a 
detached mass which overlooks the entire country. Its bases are 
inhabited by the Gambaragara, who have regular features, light 
complexions, and are the finest natives Mr. Stanley saw in 
Africa. Sight of them brought up the old question, whether an 
indigenous white race exists in Africa, as both Pinto and Liv- 
ingstone seemed inchned to believe. But their wooly, or curly, 
hair was against them. They are a pastoral people and safe in 
their mountain fastnesses against attack. Snow often covered 
the top of their high mountain, which they said was an extinct 
crater and now the bed of a beautiful lake from whose centre 
rises a lofty column of rocks. The whole country is filled with 
hot springs, lakes of bubbling mud and other evidences of vol- 
canic action. 

Tliese mountains Stanley thought to be the dividing ridge 
between Victoria Nyanza, 120 miles east, and the southern pro- 
jection of Albert Nyanza. But what was his astonishment to find 
that he had no sooner rose to the summit of his dividing ridge 
than he stood on a precipice, 1500 feet high, which overlooked 
the placid waters of the traditional Muta, or Luta, ISTzige. What 
a prize was here in store for the venturesome American ! Some- 
thing indeed which would rob Baker of his claim to the dis- 
covery of an ultimate Nile source in Albert Nyanza. Something 
which would set at rest many geographic controversies. And, 
strange to say, something which not only supported the truth of 
native accounts but seemed to verify the accuracy of an old 
Portuguese map dating back nearly 300 years. 

But fortune was not in favor of the American, His large 
force had scared the Unyoro people, and they had mysteriously 
disappeared. The Waganda warriors, who formed his escort, 
looked ominously on this situation. Samboozi, the leader of the 
escort, had gained his laurels fighting the Unyoro, and he feared 
a trap of some kind was being laid for him. His fears demoral- 
ized his own men and Stanley's as well. They decided to retreat. 
Stanley remonstrated, and asked them to remain till he could 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 325 

lower his boat and explore tlie lake. He asked for but two 
days grace. But expostulation was vain. They would all bave 
deserted in a body. 

There was nothing left but to return. When they arrived at 
Mtesa's capital, which they did without accident, the king was 
frightfully mad at his men. He ordered the faithless Samboozi 
to be imprisoned and all his wives and flocks to be confiscated. 
Then he offered Stanley his great general Sekebobo with an 
army of a hundred thousand men to carry him back to the 
Muta Nzige. Stanley declined his munificent offer, and deter- 
mined that in the future none should guide and govern his own 
force except himself. So, with very much modified impressions 
of Uganda faithfulness, and somewhat angrily, he started off in 
a southerly direction, intending to see what lay westward of 
Victoria Nyanza. 

This route of Stanley southward was that of Speke and 
Grant northward, fourteen years before. It is a well watered, 
thickly peopled, highly cultivated country, diversified by hill and 
hollow, and rich in cattle. Its water courses all drain into the 
Yictoria Nyanza. Their heads are rushing streams, but as they 
approach the lake they become reedy, stagnant lakelets hard to 
cross. The largest of these, at the southwest corner of Yictoria 
Nyanza, is Speke's Kitangule, which- Stanley named the Alex- 
andra Nile. Will we never have done with these Nile rivers? 
These continuations of the great river of Egypt? 

It seems then that Yictoria Nyanza is but a resting place 
for more southern Nile waters. That this is so, seems clear 
from the fact that the Alexandra Nile really contributes more 
water then flows out of the lake at its northern outlet. It has 
been discovered also that Albert Nyanza sends off' another afflu- 
ent to the north, besides that which flows past Gondokoro and 
which has been regarded as the true Nile. Further it seems 
that Lake Ibrahim, half way between Yictoria and Albert 
Nyanza, on the Yictoria Nile, dispatches an unknown branck 
into the wilderness. Whether these branches find their way 
back to the parent stream or go off to form new lakes, no om 
can exactly say. 



g26 SOUECES OF THE NILE. 

But in tlie Alexandra Nile Stanley claims he lias discovered 
a new ramification of this wonderful river system leading to other 
lakes and lake mysteries. The natives call the Alexandra the 
"Mother of the waters of Uganda," that is, the Victoria 
Nyanza or Victoria Nile. Be this as it may, the Alexandra 
Nile is interesting both for its own sake and that of the people 
who live upon it. Stanley struck it far np from the lake where 
it was a quarter of a mile wide, with a dark central current 100 
yards wide and fifty feet deep, which below became a rush cov- 
ered stream whose banks were crowded with villages and herds 
of cattle. Still further on, it narrows between rocks over which it 
rushes in a cataract, and then it broadens to lake proportions, 
being from four to fifteen miles wide. In this expanse of reedy 
lagoons and green islands it merges into Victoria Nyanza Lake. 

Crossing the Alexandra Nile to the south, we are in the 
Karagwe country, ruled by King Eumanika. Here is a haven 
of peace and rest. Speke and Grant staid many weeks with 
Rumanika. Stanley stopped for a considerable while to rest and 
recruit. lie is gentle and reasonable, hospitable aiid friendly. 
He is a vassal of King Mtesa of Uganda, but the two are 
wholly different, except in their admiration of white men. 
Rumanika has no bursts of temper, but is serene, soft of voice 
and placid in manner. Stanley calls him a " venerable and 
aged Pagan," a tall man, six feet six inches high, gorgeously 
dressed, attended by a multitude of spearmen, drummers and 
fifers, bearing a cane seven feet long. He has a museum in 
which he delights, and is an insatiable gatherer of news from 
those who come from civilized countries. He is not to be out- 
done by the stories of strangers, but has always one in response 
ever fuller of marvel. When Stanley told him of the results of 
steam power and of the telegraph by which people could talk 
for thousands of miles, he shly asked "Whether or not the 
moon made different faces to laugh at us mortals on earth ? " 

He proved full of traditions and, if there was any foundation 
for them, Stanley left with a rare fund of geographic knowledge 
on hand. The mountain sixty miles northward, rising in triple 
cone and called M'Fumbiro, he said was in the country of the 



SOUECES OP THE NILE. S27 

Euanda, a powerful state governed by an empress, wlio allows 
no stranger to enter. Her dominions stretch from tlie Muta 
Nzig^ to Tanganyika. They contain another great lake, forty by 
thirty miles, out of which the Alexandra Nile flows. It is pos- 
sible to ascend this channel into another sheet of water — Lake 
Kivu, out of which at its southern end flows another stream, the 
Rusizi, which flows into the north end of Tanganyika. 

What wonderful information this was, and if all true, we 
should have the most bewildering river system, by all odds in 
the world. We should find the old Portuguese map of three 
hundred years ago reproduced and verified, and the anomaly of 
three mighty streams draining a continent mingling their parent 
waters, and even permitting the passage of a boat at high water, 
so that in the end it might go to the Mediterranean, the Atlantic 
or Indian Oceans. 

Further, Rumanika stated that Euanda is peopled by demons, 
and that beyond, on a lake called Mkinyaga, are a race of can- 
nibals, and also pigmies, not two feet high. Stanley verified 
the king's story by a visit to the Euanda folks, who gnashed 
their teeth like dogs and otherwise expressed their objections 
to his visit; and Dr. Schweinfurth found, a little nearer the 
western coast, evidences of a tribe of dwarfs who are supposed 
to be the aboriginal people of the continent. But the hardest 
of Eumanika's stories was of a tribe who had ears so long that 
one answered for a blanket to lie on and another as a cover 
for the sleeper. Stanley began to think his civilized wonders 
were too tame to pit against those of the African king. 

The larger African animals abound in the Karagwe country. 
Stanley was much interested in the accounts of white elephants 
and rhinoceri. He had the good fortune to find one of the former 
animals, which he shot, but found it only a dirty grey brute, 
just as we find the advertised white elephants of the menagerie. 
The elephant is the most unpleasant neighbor of the rhinoceros. 
If they meet in a jungle the rhinoceros has to squeeze his 
ponderous body into the thicket or prepare for a battle royal. 
In such a quarrel his tusk is an ugly weapon but no match 
for the tusks of the elephant. The elephant sometimes treats 



328 



SOUECES OF THE NILE, 



him like a scliool boy and, breaking off' a limb, belabors the 
unlucky rhinoceros till he beats a retreat. At other times the 
elephant will force him against a tree and pin him there with 
his tusks, or throw him down and tramp him till the life is 
out of him. Perhaps these were more of Rumanika's yarnSj 
but certain it is both beasts are formidable in a forest path, 
especially when alone and of surly temper. 




SHOOTING A EHINOCEEOS. 



On the southern borders of Karagwe is a ridge 5000 feet 
high. Beyond this the waters trend southward and toward 
Tanganyika. And beyond this ridge the people change. There 
are no more stately kings, but petty, lying, black-mailing 
chiefs, just as we found about Gondokoro. Here Stanley 
encountered Mirambo, whose name is a word of terror from the 
Victoria Lake to the Nyassa, and from Tanganyika to Zanzibar. 



SOURCES OF THE NILE. 329 

To the explorer's astonishment he found this notorious person- 
age— 

" The mildest — mannered man 
That ever cut a throat " — 

in short " a thorough African gentleman." 

He had difficulty in believing that this " unpresuming, mild- 
eyed man, of inoffensive exterior, so calm of gesture, so generous 
and open-handed," was the terrible man of blood who wasted 
villages, slaughtered his foes by the thousand, and kept a dis- 
trict of ninety thousand square miles in continual terror. Incon- 
tinently, the impulsive explorer resolved to swear " blood 
brother-hood" with the other wandering warrior, and the cere- 
mony was gone through with all due solemility. The marauding 
chief presented his new brother with a quantity of cloth, and 
the explorer gave him in return a revolver and a quantity of 
ammunition; and then, mutually pleased with each other, they 
parted — Mirambo and his merry men to the gay greenwood, 
where, doubtless, they had a pressing engagement to meet some 
other party of travellers, and Stanley for Ujiji. 

Ujiji is on Lake Tanganyika. Here we have to leave Stan- 
ley, for he is now done with the sources of the Nile, and mid- 
way on that wonderful journey which revealed the secrets of the 
Congo. We will follow him thence and see what he discovered 
and how he lifted the fog amid which Livingstone died, but 
that will have to be under the head of the "Congo Country" 
whose mystery he solved more clearly even than that of the 
"Nile Reservoirs." 




mm 



PORTEAIT OF LIVINGSTONE. 



(330) 





ZpE 

The great river Zambesi runs eastward across Southern Africa 
and empties, by many mouths, into the Indian Ocean. It is an 
immense water system, with its head far toward the Atlantic 
Ocean, yet draining on its north side that mysterious lalce region 
which occupies Central Africa, and on its south side an almost 
equally mysterious region. 

Its lower waters have been known for a long time, but its 
middle waters and its sources have been shrouded in a cloud of 
doubts as dense as that which overhung the reservoirs of the 
Nile. Livingstone has contributed more than any other explorer 
to the lifting of these doubts. 

He was born in Glasgow, March 19, 1813, and was self-edu- 
cated. He studied medicine and became attached to the London 
Missionary Society as medical missionary. In 1840, at the age 
of twenty-seven years, he was sent to Cape Town at the south- 
ern te-rminus of Africa, whence he went 700 miles inland to the 
Kuruman Station, established by Moffat on the southern border 
of the Kalihari desert. Here and at Kolobeng, on the Kolo- 
beng River, he acquired the language of the natives, principally 
Bechuana. On a return trip from Kolobeng to Kuruman he came 
near losing his life by an adventure with a lion. The country 
was being ravaged by a troop of these beasts. When one of 
their number is killed, the rest take the hint and leave. It was 
determined to dispatch one, and a hunt was organized in com- 
pany with the natives. They found the troop on a conical hill. 
The hunters formed a circle around the hill and gradually closed 
in. Meblawe, a native schoolmaster, fired at one of the animals 
which was sitting on a rock. The bullet struck the rock. The 
angered beast bit the spot where the bullet struck and then 
bounded away. In a few moments Livingstone himself got a 
shot at another beast. The ball took effect but did not kill. 
The enraged beast dashed at his assailant before he could re-load. 

(331) 



332 



THE ZAMBESI, 



and sprang upon him. He was borne to tlie ground beneatli the 
lion's paws and felt his hot breath on his face. Another mo- 
ment must have brought deati^ But the infuriated beast saw 
Mebalwe, who had snapped both barrels of his rifle at him. 




THE LION ATTACKS LIVINGSTONE. 



He made a dash for him and lacerated his thigh in a terrible 
manner. The natives, who had hitherto acted in a very cow- 
ardly manner, now came to the rescue with their spears. One 
of their number was pounced upon and badly torn. The beast 
now began to weaken from the effect of Livingstone's shot, and 
with a quiver throughout his huge frame rolled over on his side 
dead. After the excitement was over Dr. Livingstone found 



THE ZAMBESI. 333 

eleven marks of tlie lion's teeth on his left arm, which was 
broken close to the shoulder and the bone crushed into splinters. 

Livingstone married Moffat's daughter in 1844. She had been 
born in the country and was a thorough missionary. He ma'de 
Kolobeng a beautiful station and produced an excellent impres- 
sion on the natives — all except the Boer tribes to the south and 
east, who had become much incensed against the English, owing 
as they thought, to the particularly harsh treatment they had 
received down in their former homes south of the Yaal Eiver. 

At Kolobeng, Livingstone first heard of Lake Ngami, north 
of the Kalihari Desert. He resolved to visit it, and started in 
May 1849, in company with his wife and children, several Eng- 
lish travellers and a large party of Bechuana attendants. They 
rather skirted than crossed the desert, yet they found it to con- 
sist of vast salt plains, which gave a constant mirage as if the 
whole were water. Though destitute of water, there are tufts of 
dry salt-encrusted grass here and there, which relieve it of an 
appearance of barrenness, but which crumble at the touch. 

In July they struck the river Cubango, or Zonga, flowing 
eastward and, as far as known, losing itself in a great central 
salt lake, or Dead Sea. They were told that the Zonga came out 
of Lake Ngami, further west. Ascending the river sixty miles 
they struck the lake, and were the first Europeans to behold 
this fine sheet of water. The great tribe about and beyond the 
lake is the Makololo, whose chief is Sebituane, a generous hearted 
and truly noble character. They could not see him on this trip. 
So they returned, making easy journeys down the Zonga, admir- 
ing its beautiful banks, which abounded in large game, especially 
elephants. - 

The next year (1850), Livingstone and his family started again 
for Lake ISTgami, accompanied by the good chief Sechele, who 
took along a wagon, drawn by oxen. While this means of loco- 
motion gave comfort to the family, it involved much labor in 
clearing roads, and the animals suffered sadly from attacks by 
the tsetse fly, whose sting is poisonous. But the lake was 
reached in safety. The season proved sickly, and a return jour- 
ney became compulsory, without seeing Sebituane. But the chief 



334 



THE ZAMBESI, 



had heard of Livingstone's attempts to visit his court, and he 
sent presents, and invitations to another visit. He set out on a 
third journey, and this time directly across the desert, where 
they suffered much for want of water. 




CUTTING- A EOAD. 

This time they found the chief. His headquarters were on 
an island in the river, below the lake. He received the party 
with the greatest courtesy, and appeared to be the best man- 
nered and frankest chief Livingstone ever met. He was about 
forty-five years old, tall and wiry, of coffee-and-milk complexion, 
slightly bald, of undoubted bravery, always leading his men in 
battle, and by far the most powerful • warrior beyond Cape 
Colony. He had reduced tribe after tribe, till his dominions 
extended far into the desert on the south of the Zonga, embraced 
both sides of that stream, and ran northward to, and beyond, 
the great Zambesi Eiver. 



THE ZAMBESI. 335 

CHef Sebituai]^ died wliile Livingstone was visiting him, and 
was succeeded by his daughter Ma-Mochisane. She extended 
tlie privileges of the country to the travellers, and Liv- 
ingstone went north to Sesheke to see her. Here in June, 1851, 
he discovered the great Zambesi in the centre of the continent 
of Africa where it was not previously known to exist — all for- 
mer maps being incorrect. 

Though the country was not healthy, he was so impressed 
with tlie beauty of the Zambesi regions, and the character of 
the Makololo people, that he resolved to make a permanent 
establishment among them. But before doing so he returned to 
Cape Colony and sent his family to England. Then he went 
back, visiting his old stati@ns on the way. He arrived at Linyanti, 
where he found that the new queen had abdicated in favor of 
her brother, on May 23, 1853. The new king Sekelutu was 
not unlike his father in stature and color, was kindly disposed 
toward white people, but could not be convinced that their 
religious notions were suited to him. 

Livingstone remained a month at Linyanti, on the Chobe, or 
Cuaudo River, above its junction with the Zambezi. He then started 
on a further exploration of the latter river, and was gratified to 
find that Sekelutu determined to accompany him with 160 
attendants. They made royal progress down the Chobe to its 
mouth. Then they began to ascend the Zambesi in thirty-three 
canoes. The river was more than a mile broad, dotted with 
large islands and bioken with frequent rapids and falls. The 
banks were thickly strewn with villages. Elephants were 
numerous. It was the new king's first visit to his people and 
everywhere the receptions were grand. Throughout this Barotse 
valley hunger is not known, yet there is no care exercised in 
planting. 

The spirit of exploration had such full possession of Living- 
stone that, on the return of the royal party to Linyanti, he 
organized an expedition to ascend the Zambesi and cut across 
to Loanda on the Atlantic coast. This he did in 1854. It was 
on this journey that he discovered Lake Dilolo. It is not much 
of a lake, being only eight miles long by three broad. But it 



336 THE ZAMBESI. 

was a puzzle to Livingstone, and has ever since been a curiosity. 
It is the connecting link between two immense water systems — 
that of the Congo and Zambesi. 

When he struck it on his westward journey toward Loanda, 
he found it sending out a volume into the Zambesi. "Head- 
waters of a great river!" he naturally exclaimed. And there 
was the elevation above the sea, the watershed, to prove it, for 
soon after all the waters ran northward and westward instead 
of eastward and southward. 

But in a few months he was making his return journey from 
Loanda to the interior, to fulfil his pledge to bring back his 
Makololo attendants in safety. He then approached this lake 
from the north. What was his surprise to find another slow 
moving, reed-covered stream a mile wide, flowing from this end 
of the mysterious lake and sending its waters toward the Congo. 

Though ill with fever both times, he was able to conquer 
disease sufficiently to satisfy himself that this little lake, Dilolo, 
four thousand feet above the sea level, is located exactly on the 
watershed between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and distri- 
butes its contents impartially between the two seas. A drop 
of rain blown by the wind to the one or the other end of the 
lake may re-enforce the tumbling floods that roar through the 
channels of the Congo and rush sixty miles out into the salt 
waters of the Atlantic, or may make with the Zambesi the 
dizzy leap through the great Victoria Falls and mingle with the 
Indian ocean. No similar phenomenon is known anywhere. 
Lake Kivo may form a corresponding band of union between 
the Congo and the Nile, but this we do not know. Apart from 
the eccentric double part it plays, the physical features of 
Dilolo are tame and ordinary enough. It has, of course, hippo- 
potami and crocodiles as every water in Central Africa has, and 
its banks are fringed with marshes covered with profuse growth 
of rushes, cane, papyrus, and reeds. Around it stretch wide 
plains, limitless as the sea, on which for many months of the 
year the stagnant waters rest, balancing themselves, as it were, 
between the two sides of a continent, unable to make up their 
mind whether to favor the east coast or the west with their tribute. 



THE ZAMBESI. 337 

No trees break the horizon. The lands in the fens bear only 
a low growth of shrub, and the landscape is dismal and monot- 
onous in the extreme. "Dilolo means despair," and the dwellers 
near it tell a story curiously resembling the tale of the "Cities 
of the plain," and the tradition handed down regarding some of 
the lakes in Central Asia, of how a venerable wanderer came 
to this spot near evening and begged for the charity of shelter 
and food, how the churlish inhabitants mocked his petition, 
with the exception of one poor man who gave the stranger a 
nook by his fire and the best his hut afforded, and how after a 
terrible night of tempest and lightning the hospitable villager 
found his guest gone and the site of his neighbor's dwellings 
occupied by a lake. When the rains have ceased and the hot 
sun has dried up the moisture the outlook is more cheerful. A 
bright golden band of flowers of every shade of yellow stretches 
across the path, then succeeds a stripe of blue, varying from 
the lightest tint to purple, and so band follows band with the 
regularity of the stripes on a zebra. 

The explorer is glad, however, to escape these splendid water- 
sheds and to pass down into the shadows of the forests of the 
Zambesi, where, at least, there will be a change of discomforts, 
and a, variety ol scenery. There are four methods of travel 
familiar in Southern Africa. One is the bullock-wagon, conven- 
ient and pleasant enough in the Southern Plains, but hardly 
practicable in the rude wilderness adjoining the Zambesi. Kid- 
ing on bullock back is a mode of travel which Livingstone 
frequently adopted from sheer inability to walk from weakness. 
Marching on foot is, of course, the best of all plans when a 
thorough and minute acquaintance with the district traversed is 
desired. But for ease and rapid progress there is nothing like 
"paddling your own canoe," or better still, having it paddled 
for you by skilled boatmen down the deep gorges and through 
the rushing shallows of the third of the great Afincan rivers. 
Before the main stream of the Zambesi is reached, the forest 
shadows of the Lotembwa and the Leeba have to be threaded. 
These dark moss-covered rivers flow between dripping banks of 
overgrown forests and jungle with frequent clearings, where the 
22 



838 THE ZAMBESI. 

villagers raise their crops of manilioc, the plant that yields the 
tapioco of commerce, and which here furnishes the chief food of 
the natives. 

Fetisch worship flourishes in these dark and gloomy woods. 
In their depths a fantastically carved demon face, staring from a 
tree, will often startle the intruder, or a grotesque representation 
of a lion or crocodile, or of the human ^ face made of rushes, 
plastered over with clay and with shells or beads for eyes, will 
be found perched in a seat of honor with offerings of food and 
ornaments laid on the rude altar. Whether human sacrifices are 
offered at these shrines cannot positively be said, but the most 
simple and trifling acts are " tabooed," and unless the traveller is 
exceedingly wary in all that he does or says, he is likely to be met 
with heavy fines or looked upon as a cursed man, who will bring 
misfortune on all who aid or approach him. The medicine man has 
a terrible power which he often exercises over the lives and property 
of his fellows, and a sentence of witchcraft is often followed by 
death. A great source of profit is weather-making but, unlike 
the prophets in the arid deserts on the soutli, the magicians of 
this moist, cool region devote their energies to keeping off rain 
and not to bringing it down from Heaven. Of course if they per- 
severe long enough the rain ceases to fall, and the credulous 
natives believe that this has been produced by the medicine 
they have purchased so dearly, just as the Bechuana of the desert 
believe in the ability of their rain-makers, when handsomely 
paid, to bring showers down on the thirsty ground by virtue of 
drumming and dancing. 

The behavior of the inhabitants of these villages, on the 
appearance among them of a white man, is apt to shake the 
notion of the latter that the superior good looks of his own race 
are universally acknowleged. Their standard of beauty is quite 
different from ours. Sometimes a wife is measured by the number 
of pounds she weighs, sometimes by her color, often by the pecu- 
liarities of ornamentation, or by special style of head-dress or 
some disfigurement of the nose, lips or ears, on which the 
female population mainly rely for making themselves attractive. 
The wearing of clothes is regarded as a practice fairly provoca- 



THE ZAMBESI. 



389 



tive of laughter, and as improper as the want of them would be. 
in America, Nothing could be more hideous to them than the 
long hair, shaggy beard and whiskers, like the mane of a lion, 
which strangers wear. If the stranger have blue eyes and red 
whiskers he is regarded as a hob-goblin, before whom the vil- 




A BANYAN TEEE. 



lage girls run away screaming with terror, and the children hide 
trembling behind their mothers. At the village of the Shinte, 
the principal tribe on the Leeba Eiver, Livingstone was very 
kindly treated by the chief. He received him seated in state 
under the shade of a banyan tree, with his hundred wives seated 
behind him, and his band of drummers performing in -front. Out 



340 THE ZAMBESI. 

of gratitude, tte Doctor treated the distinguislied party to an 
entertainment with the magic-lantern. The subject was the death 
of Isaac, and the party looked on with awe as the gigant-ic fig- 
ures with flowing Oriental robes, prominent noses, and ruddy 
complexions appeared upon the curtain. But when the Patriarch's 
up-lifted arm, with the dagger in hand, was seen descending, the 
ladies, fancying that it was about to be sheathed in their bosoms 
instead of Isaac's, sprang to their feet with shouts of " Mother ! 
Mother I " and rushed helter-skelter, tumbling pell-mell after 
each other into corners or out into the open aii, and it was 
impossible to bring them back to witness the Patriarch's subse- 
quent fortunes. 

On the lower part of the Leeba the scenery becomes very 
beautiful and richly diversified. The alternation of hill and 
dale, open glade and forest, past which the canoe bears us 
swiftly, reminds one of a carefully kept park. Animal life 
becomes more plentiful with every mile of southward progress, 
and the broad meadows bordering the stream are pastured by 
great herds of wild animals — buffaloes, antelopes, zebras, ele- 
phants, and rhinoceri,— all of which may be slaughtered in 
scores before they take alarm. 

Below the confluence of the Leeba with the Zambesi, the 
abundance of game on the banks of the river is more remark- 
able. The air is found darkened by the flight of innumerable 
water fowl, fish-hawks, cranes, and waders of many varieties. The 
earth teems with insect life and the waters swarm with fish life. 
As an instance of the jJrodigious quantity and exceeding tame- 
ness of wild animals here, Livingstone mentions that "eighty- 
one buffaloes marched in slow procession before our fire one 
evening within gun shot, and herds of splendid deer sat by day 
without fear at two hundred yards distance, while all through 
the night the lions were heard roaring close to the camp." In 
the heat of the day sleek elands, tall as ordinary horses, with 
black glossy bodies and delicately striped skins, browsed or 
reclined in the shade of the forest trees. Troops of graceful, 
agile antelopes, of similar species, scour across the pasture lands 
to seek the cool retreat of some deep dell in the woods, or a 



THE ZAMBESI. 341 

solitary rhinoceros comes grunting down to the bank in search 
of some soft place where he can roll his horny hide in the 
mud. The trees themselves have a variety and beauty which 
the sombre evergreen foliage of higher latitudes lacks, and which 
is equally wanting in the dust colored groves of the desert 
further south. 

The voyage down the stream is by no means without inci- 
dent. The river swarms with hippopotami and crocodiles. The 
former lead a lazy sleepy life by day in the bottom of the 
stream, coming now and then to the surface to breathe and 
exchange a snort of recognition with their acquaintances, and are 
only too well pleased to let the passer by go in peace, if he will 
but let them alone. In districts where they are hunted, they are 
wary and take care to push no more than the tip of their snouts 
out of the water, or lie in some bed of rushes where they breathe 
so softly that they cannot be heard. But in a place where they 
have not been disturbed, they can be seen swimming about, and 
sometimes the female hippopotamus can be seen with the little 
figure of her calf floating on her neck. Certain elderly males 
who are expelled from the herd become soured in temper and 
are dangerous to encounter, and so also is a mother if robbed of 
her young. Such a one made an attack on Livingstone's boat, 
when descending the Zambesi in 1855, butting it from beneath 
until the fore end stood out of water, and throwing one of the 
natives into the stream. By diving and holding on to the grass 
at the bottom, while the angry beast was looking for him on 
the surface, he escaped its vengeance and, the boat being fortu- 
nately close to the shore, the rest of the crew got off unharmed. 
The alligators of this part of the Zambesi are peculiarly rapa- 
cious and aggressive, and the chances are that anybody unlucky 
enough to fall into the river will find his way into the mouth 
of a watchful crocodile. Every year these ferocious reptiles 
carry off hundreds of human victims, chiefly women, while fill- 
ing their water jars, or men whose canoes are accidently upset, 
and the inhabitants in their turn make a prey of the beast, 
being extremely fond of its flesh and eggs. The crocodile attacks 
by surprise. He lurks behind the bank of rushes, or lies in wait 



'-Src*^ 









„' ^^^i v^ J^=s 



-'.^^^ 




THE ZAMBESI. 848 

at the bottom of a pool, and dashes out as soon as he sees a 
human limb in the water. Sometimes, however, when hungry 
and where favorable opportunity occurs, he will haul his body 
ashore and waddle up the bank on his stumpy legs. If, while 
disporting himself on shore, his wicked green eyes fall on some 
likely victim in the stream, he will dash rapidly through the 
rushes, plunge into the river and make a bound for his prey. 
The young crocodiles show their vicious temper almost as soon 
as they are out of the shell, and one savage little wretch about 
two feet long made a snap at Dr. Livingstone's legs, while walk- 
ing along the side of a stream in the Zambesi region, that made 
the explorer jump aside with more agility than dignity. 

Some distance below the junction of the Leeba, the Zambesi 
enters the valley of the Barotse. This is one of the most fer- 
tile, yet the most unhealthy, districts in the interior of Africa. 
It is stocked with great herds of domestic cattle of two varie- 
ties. One very tall with enormous horns, nearly nine feet 
between the tips, and the other a beautifully formed little white 
breed. The country could grow grain enough to support ten 
times the inhabitants it has at present. Like the lower valley 
of the Nile, the Barotse country is inundated every year, over 
its whole surface, by the waters of the river, which deposit a 
layer of fertilizing slime. The banks of the Zambesi, for some 
distance above and below this district, are high and cliffy, pre- 
senting ridge after ridge of fine rock and pleasing scenery, while 
the stream runs swiftly over its stony bed. For a hundred 
miles through the Barotse valley the stream has a deep and 
winding course and the hills withdraw to a distance of fifteen 
miles from either bank. To the foot of these hills the waters 
extend in flood time, and the valley becomes temporarily one of 
the lake regions of Central Africa. 

At the lower end of the valley the rocky spurs again 
approach each other, and the river forces its way through a 
narrow defile in which, in flood time, the water rises to a height 
of sixty feet above its original level. Here are situated the 
Gonye Falls which are a serious impediment to the navigation 
of the Upper Zambesi. But there is no such danger or diffi.- 



344 



THE ZAMBESI. 



culty here for canoes as poor Stanley met with on the Congo. 
Practice has made the natives, living near the falls, experts in the 
work of transporting these canoes over the rocky ground and, 
as soon as a boat approaches the rapids from above or below, 
it is whisked without difficulty by a pair of sturdy arms to the 
quiet water beyond. Below the Gonye Falls, the water bounds 




THE GONYE FALLS. 

and rolls and bounces from bank to bank and chafes over the 
boulders in an alarming manner, their breadth being contracted 
to a few hundred yards. But these swollen rapids might all be 
ascended, Livingstone thinks, when the river is full. After 
many leagues of this mad gamboling, the Zambesi settles down 
again for a hundred miles to sober flow, and opens out into a 
magnificent navigable river a mile or two from bank to bank. 
Still more grand, however, are its dimensions after it receives 
a great deep, dark colored, slow flowing river, the Cuando, or 



THE ZAMBESI. 845 

Chobe, before mentioned. The Chobe empties through several 
mouths with winding channels fringed with beds of papyrus, 
the stems of which are plaited and woven together into an 
almost solid mass of vines, and by grass with keen, sharp, ser- 
rated edges, which cut like razors. Even the hippopotamus has 
no little ado in forcing a way through this forest, and less 
weighty personages have to walk humbly in his track. So 
wide is the Zambesi below the entrance of the Chobe, that even 
the practiced native eye cannot tell from the bank whether the 
land, dimly seen beyond, is an island or opposite shore, and the 
stream flows placidly past with no sign that it is almost within 
sight of a tremendous downfall. 

The only traveller who has explored the upper waters of the 
Chobe is Major Serpa Pinto, on his recent journey from Ben- 
guela to Natal. But we shall learn more of his travels here- 
after. It is, however, interesting now to note that he found a 
spot on this river also, where he could almost have placed his 
cap on the point of junction between streams draining toward 
the Atlantic, the Zambesi, the Indian Ocean, and the Kalihari 
Desert. 

Livingstone, has already made us familiar with Lake Ngami 
and the banks of the lower Cuando. These are the furthest 
outposts of equatorial moisture toward the south, just as Lake 
Chad and the White Nile mark its northern limits. Once, it 
is supposed — and indeed the fact seems beyond dispute — the 
Zambesi, and all its upper branches, flowed down into this 
southern basin and formed a goodly inland sea, until some great 
cataclysm happened, that diverted it and its waters toward the 
eastern coast, leaving the central lake to be dried up into the 
shallow Ngami, and the streams of this region to wander about 
haphazard and uncertain whether to keep in the old tracks or 
follow in the new direction. 

The discovery of the Cuando Eiver by Livingstone in 1849, 
demolished the theorj'- of a burning desert occupying the interior 
of Africa from the Mediterranean to the Cape, and went far to prove, 
what has since been completely established, that the fabulous 
Lorrid zone of Africa, and its burning sands, is a well watered 



THE ZAMBESI. 347 

region, resembling North America in its mountains and lakes, and 
India in its Lot humid plains, thick jungles, and cool highlands. 
We have already seen that the South African desert is not without 
vegetation, but its pride and glory are herds of big and small 
game — antelopes, gnues, zebras, osti^iches, elands, gem shocks, 
gazelles, vai'ious species of deer — that roam over its spacious 
plains. Great deeds of slaughter have been done with the rifle, 
and told over and over again in many a stirring book of African 
sport by Gunning, Anderson, and other Nimrods, who were among 
the first of the army of hunters who now annually go in search 
of hides, tusks, and horns, which every year become more diffi- 
cult to obtain. The lion is practically the only animal of the 
cat tribe which they have to encounter, the tiger being unknown 
in Africa, and the leopard comparatively rare. The lion seems 
to be more at home in these salt deserts than in the rank forests 
further north, probably because he finds food niore plentiful. Liv- 
ingstone had no great opinion of this beast. He describes him 
as " about the size of a donkey and only brave at roaring," 
even the talk of his majestic roar he regards as "majestic 
twaddle," and he says he could never tell the voice of the lion from 
the voice of an ostrich, except from knowing that the quadruped 
made a noise by night and the bird by day. The lion would 
never dream of putting himself against a noble elephant, though 
he will tear an elephant calf if he finds one unprotected, and he 
would still less engage in a contest with the thick skinned 
rhinoceros. Even a buffalo is more than a match for the " King 
of Beasts." Major Oswald once came across three lions who 
were having much trouble in pulling a mortally wounded buffalo 
to the ground. 

Both the elephant and rhinoceros are himted here by the 
natives with packs of dogs. The yelping curs completely bewil- 
der their heavy game, and while he is paying attention to them 
and making attempts to kill them, the native creeps up and 
plants his bullet or poisoned spear in a vital spot. Enghsh 
sportsmen prefer to go out against the elephant on foot or or 
horseback or, as Anderson, upon the back of a trained ox. In 
former times as many as twenty have been killed on a single 



348 THE ZAMBESI. 

uxoursion. The chase of the Imge animal, which attains a max- 
imum height of twelve feet on the Zambesi, becomes really 
exciting and dangerous work, for the African variety, owing to 
the formation of its skull, cannot be brought down by a fore- 
head shot like the Indian variety. The giraffe and ostrich are 
also hunted on horseback, and the plan adopted by hunters is 
to press them at a hard gallop from the first, which causes them 
to lose their wind and sometimes to drop dead from excitement. 
The ostrich, when at the top of his speed, has been known to 
run at the rate of thirty miles an hour, so that there is no hope 
of overtaking him in a direct chase, but the stupid bird often 
delivers itself into the hands of its pursuers by running in curves 
instead of speeding straight ahead. 

The people of the Kalihari Desert are as characteristic of the 
soil and climate as its vegetable life and four-footed beasts. 
They are of two kinds, first Bushmen, who are true sons of the 
wilderness, wild men of the desert, who live by the chase. 
They are of diminutive stature and, like the dwarfs further 
north, are supposed to represent the real aborigines of Africa. 
The second are remnants of the Becbuana tribes. These have 
been driven into the desert by the pressure of stronger peoples 
behind. They are a people who cling to their original love for 
domestic animals, and watch their flocks of lean goats and 
meagre cattle with great care. On the edges of the desert are 
the Boers, emigrant Dutch farmers, who have fled from British 
rule in the Transvaal, as their fathers fled from Cape Colony 
and Natal. The coming of these always betokens trouble with 
the natives, and as gold miners and diamond diggers are pene- 
trating into the Kalihari Desert, we may expect to see British 
authority close on their keels, and perhaps at no distant day 
fully established on the banks of the Zambesi, unless forsooth, 
some other nations should see fit to interfere. 

In his trip to Loanda, Livingstone had been seeking an outlet 
to the Atlantic for the Makalolo people. On his return, they 
were dissatisfied with his route and preferred an outlet east- 
ward toward the Indian Ocean. He therefore resolved to 
explore a path in this direction for them. With all his wants 



I 



350 I'ill^^ ZAMBESI. 

abundantly supplied by the friendly cbief Sekelutu, he set out 
for this great journey and after a fortnight's laborious travel 
reached the Zambesi at the mouth of the Chobe, in November 
1855. Saihng down the Zambesi, Livingstone saw rising high 
into the air before him, at a distance of six miles, five pillars 
of vapor with dark smoky summits. The river was smooth 
and tranquil, and his boat glided placidly over water clear as 
■crystal, past lovely islands, densely covered with tropical vege- 
tation, and by high banks with red cliffs peering through their back 
ground of palm trees. The traveller was not altogether unpre- 
pared for the marvels that lay ahead. Two hundred miles 
away he had heard of the fame of the great gorge Mozi-oa- 
Tunia — "the sounding smoke," where the Zambesi mysteriously 
disappeared. As the falls were approached the pulse of the river 
seemed to quicken. It was still more than a mile wide, but it 
hurried over rapids, and chafed around points of rocks, and the most 
careful and skillful navigation was needed, lest the canoe should be 
dashed against a reef, or hurried helplessly down the chasm. 
The mysterjr in front became more inexplicable the nearer it 
was approached, for the great river seemed to disappear sud- 
denly under ground, leaving its bed of hard black rock and 
well defined banks. By keeping the middle of the stream and 
cautiously paddling between the rocks, he reached a small 
island on the tip of the Victoria Falls — a spot where he 
planted some fruit trees, and for the only time on his travels 
carved his initials on a tree in remembrance of his visit. 

It could not be seen what became of the vast body of water, 
until the explorer had crept up the dizzy edge of the chasm 
from below, and peeped over fnto the dark gulf The river, 
more than a mile in width, precipitated itself sheer down into a 
rent extending at right angles across its bed. The walls of the 
precipice were as cleanly cut as if done by a knife, and no pro- 
jecting crag broke the sheet of falling waters. Four rocks, or 
rather small islands, on the edge of the falls divide them into 
five separate cascades, and in front of each fall rises one of the 
tall pillars of smoke which are visible in time of flood at a dis- 
tance of ten miles. Only at low water can the island on which 



THE ZAMBESI. 



851 



Livingstone stood be approached, for when tlie river is high any 
attempt to reach it would result in a plunge into the abyss 
below. Against the black wall of the precipice opposite the 
falls two, three, and sometimes four rainbows, each forming three 
fourths of an arc, are painted on the ascending clouds of spray, 
which continually rush up from, the depths below. A fine rain 
is constantly falling from these clouds, and the cliff's are covered 






VICTORIA FALLS, OR MOZI-OA-TUNIA. 

with dense, dripping vegetation. But the great sight is the 
cataract itself. The rent in the rocks seems to be of compara- 
tively recent formation, for their edges are worn back only about 
three feet. 

Since Livingstone's first visit, th'e falls have been more 
minutely examined by other explorers, so that we now know 
more accurately their dimensions and leading features. The 
breadth of the river at the falls has been ascertained to be 



352 THE ZAMBESI. 

over 1860 yards, and the depth of the precipice below the island 
360 feet, or twice that o-f Niagara. At the bottom of the 
rent, all the waters that have come over the falls rush 
together in the centre of the gulf immediately beneath the 
island where, confined in a space of twenty or thirty yards, they 
form a fearful boiling whirlpool. From this a stream flows 
through the narrow channel at right angles to the course above 
and, turning a sharp corner, emerges into another chasm parallel 
with the first; then through another confined gap to a third 
chasm; and so backward and forward in wild confusion through 
forty miles of hills, until it breaks out into the level country of 
the lower Zambesi. The rush of the river through this inac- 
cessible ravine is not so turbulent as might be imagined from 
its being pent in between walls less than forty yards apart. It 
pushes its way with a crushing, grinding motion, sweeping 
around the sharp corners with a swift resistless ease that indi- 
cates plainly a great depth of water. It was through this gap, 
caused by some unrecorded convulsion of the earth, that the 
great lake which must have at one time occupied South Central 
Africa, has been drained, and it forms undoubtedly the most 
wonderful natural feature in Africa, if not in the world. 

At the great falls of the Zambesi, named the Victoria Falls, 
in honor of the Queen of England, we are still a thousand miles 
from the sea, and hundreds of miles from the first traces of 
civilization, such as appear in the Portuguese possessions of 
eastern Africa. 

Nature has been exceedingly lavish of her gifts in the 
Lower Zambesi Valley, giving it a fertile soil, a splendid system 
of river communication, and great stores of mineral and vegetable 
wealth, everything indeed, that is necessary to make a prosperous 
country, except a healthy climate, and industrious population. 
Here as upon the borders of the Nile, war and slave hunting 
have cursed the country with an apparently hopeless blight 
Around the falls themselves are the scenes of some of the most 
noteworthy events in Central African warfare. The history of 
what are called the "Charka Wars," has not yet and never will 
be written, nevertheless they extended over as great an area and 



THE ZAMBESI. 853 

shook as many thrones and dominions as those of Bonaparte 
himself. Charka was a chief of the now familiar Zulu tribe, and 
grandfather of that celebrated Cetjwayo, whose ill-starred strug- 
gle with the English cost him his country and his liberty, and 
whom we read of the other day as a royal captive in the streets 
of London. It is said that he had heard of the feats of the first 
Napoleon, and was smitten with a desire to imitate his deeds. 
He formed his tribes into regiments, and these became the famous 
Zulu bands which immediately began to make war on all their 
neighbors. Conquered armies were incorporated into the Zulu 
army, and Charka went on making conquests in Natal, Caffaria, 
and Southern Africa, leaving the lands waste and empty. 
He spread the fame of the Zulus far into the possessions of the 
English and Portuguese. 

Turning north, he occupied the countrj^ as far as the Zambesi. 
Crossing this stream, he moved into the regions between the Lakes 
Nyassa and Tanganyika, then he carried his power to the west- 
ward as far as the Victoria Falls, where he was met by the Mak- 
alolos, with wliom Livingstone has just made us familiar. In 
this people, under their chief, Sebituane, he found an enemy 
worthy of his steel. This tribe could not be conquered so long 
as their chief lived, but at his death their kingdom began to go 
to pieces under Sekelutu, though he was not less brave and 
intelligent than his father. It was over the smouklering embers 
of these wars that Livingstone had to pass in his descent of the 
Zambesi. 

As he descended the Zambesi and approached the Indian 
Ocean, the stream gathered breadth and volume from great tribu- 
taries which flow into it on either side. The Kafue, hardly 
smaller than the Zambesi itself, comes into it from the north. Its 
course has still to be traced and its source has yet to be visited. 
Further down, the Loangwa, also a mighty river, enters it, and 
its banks, like those of the Kafue, are thickly populated, and 
rich in mineral treasures. The great Zambesi sweeps majestic- 
ally on from one reach of rich tropical scenery to another. On 
its shores are seen the villages of native fisherman. Their huts 
and clearings for cotton and tobacco are girded about by dense 
23 



354 THE ZAMBESI. 

jungies of bamboo, back of wliicb rise forests of palm. Behind 
tlie°forests the grand hills slope up steeply, diversified with 
clumps of timber and fringed with trees to their summits. 
Behind, extend undulated plains of long grass to the base of a 
second range of hills, the outer bank of the Zambesi Valley. 
Now and then, on either bank, a river valley opens, whose sides 
are thickly overgrown with jungle, above v/hich rise the feathery 
tops of the palms and the stately stems of the tamarind ; on 
their margins, or on the slopes above, herds of buffaloes, zebras, 
roebucks and wild pigs may be seen peacefully grazing together, 
with occasionally a troop of elephants or a solitary rhinoceros. 
Dr. Livingstone says, nowhere in all his travels has he seen such 
an abundance of animal life as in this portion of the Zambesi. 
Yet it is possible even here to be alone. The high walls of grass 
on either side of the jungle path seem to the traveller to be the 
boundaries of the world. At times a strange stillness pervades 
the air, and no sound is heard from bird or beast or living thing. 
In the midst of this stillness, interruptions come like surprises and 
sometimes in not a very pleasant form. Once while Dr. Liv- 
ingstone was walking in a reverie, he was startled by a female 
rhinoceros, followed by her calf, coming thundering down along the 
narrow path, and he had barely time to jump into a thicket in 
order to escape its charge. Occasionally a panic stricken herd 
of buffaloes will make a rush through the centre of the line of 
porters and donkeys, scattering them in wild confusion into the 
bush and tossing perhaps the nearest man and animal into the 
air. Neither the buffalo nor any other wild animal, however, 
will attack a human being except when driven to an extremity. 
The lion or leopard, when watching for their prey, will perhaps 
spring on the man who passes by. The buffalo, if it thinks it 
is being surrounded, will make a mad charge to escape, or the 
elephant, if wounded and brought to bay, or in defense of its 
young, will turn on its pursuers. A "rogue" elephant or buffalo, 
who has been turned out of the herd by his fellows for some 
fault or blemish, and has become cross and ill-natured by his 
solitary life, has been known to make an unprovoked attack 
on the first creature, man or beast, that presents itself to his 



THE ZAMBESI. 



355 



sight. Thus, one savage "rogue" buffalo, furiously charged a 
native of Livingstone's party, in the ascent of the Zambesi in 
1860, and the man had barely time to escape into a tree wh^n 
the huge head of the beast came crashing against the trunk wii;o a 




CHARGE OF A BUFFALO. 

shock fit to crack botli skull and tree. Backing again, he Cttme 
with another rush, and thus continued to beat the tree until 
seven shots were fired into him. 

But as a rule, every untamed creature flees in terror on sight- 
ing red-handed man. 



356 



THE ZAMBESI. 



The only real obstacle to a descent of the Zambesi by steamer 
between Victoria Falls and tlie sea, is what are called Kebrabesa 
Eapids, and even the navigation of these is believed to be pos- 
sible in time of flood, when the rocky bed is smoothed over by 
deep water. In the ordinary state of the river these rapids 




NATIVE SLAVE HUNTERS. 

cannot be passed, although the inhuman experiment has been 
tried of fastening slaves to a canoe and flinging them into the 
the river above the rapids. Dr. Kirk had here an accident 
which nearly cost him his life. The canoe in which he was 
seated was caught in one of the many whirlpools formed by the 
cataract, and driven broadside toward the vortex. Suddenly a 
great upward boiling of the water, here nearly one hundred feet 



THE ZAMBESI. 357 

deep, cauglit the frail craft, and daslied it against a ledge of 
rock, whicli the doctor was fortunately able to grasp, and thas? 
save himself, though he lost all his scientific instruments. When, 
Livingstone's boat, which was immediately behind the doctors 
reached the spot, the yawning cavity of the whirlpool had mom- 
entarily closed up and he passed over it in safety. All along 
the line of the Lower Zambesi we find traces of Portuguese 
colonies, and also of the slave trade. Nowhere in all Africa has 
this traffic been more flourishing or ruinous in its effects, than 
in the colony of Mozambique. Here too, Livingstone was the 
champion who, almost single handed, marched out and gave 
battle to this many headed monster Like Baker in the north, 
he inflicted upon it what we must hope is a fatal wound. ' As 
with the Egyptian authorities in the north, so the Portuguese 
authorities in the south, seem to have been actively concerned 
with the slave dealers. They not only connived at it, but profited 
by it. At one time, before slave trading became a business, 
European influence and Christian civilization under the auspices 
of the Jesuit missionaries extended far into the interior. At the 
confluence of the Loangwa and Zambesi is still to be seen a 
Ruined church of one of the furthest outposts of tiie Jesuit 
fathers, its bell half buried in the rank weeds. The spot is the 
scene of desolation now. Livingstone bears generous testimony 
to the zeal, piety and self abnegation of these Jesuit priests. Their 
plans and labors hindered the slave-gatherers success, and it 
became necessary to get rid of them by calumny and often 
worse v^eapons. With the failure of their mission perished all 
true progress and discovery, and when Livingstone visited the 
Portuguese colonies on the Zambesi, he found complete ignorance 
of the existence of the Victoria Falls and only vague rumors of 
the existence of Lake Nyassa from which the Shire, the last of 
the great affluents of the Zambesi, was supposed to flow. 

Only ninety miles from the mouth of the great Zambesi, 
empties the Shire from the north. It is a strong, deep river, 
and twenty years ago was unknown. It is navigable half way 
up, when it is broken by cataracts which descend 1200 feet in 
thirty-five miles. If this river is always bounded by sedgy 



358 THE ZAMBESI. 

bankc, magnificent mountains are always in view on either 
side. No vegetation could be richer than that found in its 
valley, and its cotton is equal to our own Sea Island. The 
natives have both the skill and the inclination to work. It is 
not a healthy region along the river, for often the swamps are 
impenetrable to the base of the mountains. Animal life abounds 
in all tropical forms The glory of the marshes is their hippo- 
potami and elephants. Livingstone, in 1859, counted 800 of 
these animals in sight at once But they have been greatly 
thinned out by hunters. 

From the cataracts' of the Shire, Livingstone made several 
searches for lakes spoken of by the natives. He found Lake 
Shirwa amid magnificent mountain scenery. But the great feature 
of the valley is Lake Nyassa, the headwaters of the stream. It 
was discovered by Livingstone, September 16, 1859, It is 300 
miles long and 60 wide. It resembles Albert Nyanza and 
Tanganyika, with which it was formerly supposed to be connected. 
Its shores are overhung by tall mountains, down which cascades 
plunge into the lake. But once on the tops of these mountains, 
there is no precipitous decline; only high table land stretching oft' 
in all directions. The inhabitants are the wildest kind of Zulus, 
who carry formidable weapons and paint their bodies in fiendish 
devices. They are the victims of the slave traders to an extent 
which would shock even the cruel Arab brigands of the White 
Nile. 

Lake Nyassa is a " Lake of Storms." 'Clouds are often seen 
approaching on its surface, which turn out to be composed of 
"Kungo" flies, which are gathered and eaten by the natives. 
The ladies all wear lip nngs. Some of the women have fine 
Jewish or Assyrian features, and are quite handsome. The fine 
Alpine country north of Nyassa has not been explored, except 
slightly by Elton and Thompson, who found it full of elephants, 
and one of the grandest regions in the world for sublime 
mountain heights, deep and fertile valleys, and picturesque 
scenery. The mountains rise to a height of 12,000 to 14,000 
feet, and are snow capped. 

In the valley of the Shire lie the bones of many an African 



THE ZAMBESI. 



359 




HUAMBO MAN" AND WOMAN. 



explorer. Bishop Mackers'.e 
is buried in its swamjis. 
Thornton found a grave at 
the foot of its cataracts. A 
few miles below its mouth, 
beneath a giant baobab tree, 
]"epo.-ies the remains of Mrs. 
Livingstone, and near her is 
the resting place of Kirkpat- 
rick, of the Zambesi Survey 
of 1826. 



Yet the thirst for discovery in the Zambesi 
country has not abated. Nor will it till 
Nyassa, Tanganyika, and even Victoria and 
Albert Nyanza, are approachable, for there can 
be no doubt that the Zambesi is an easier nat- 
ural inlet to the , heart of Africa than either 
the Nile or Congo. 

No account of the Zambesi can be perfect $ 
without mention of Pinto's trip across the conti- 
nent of Africa. He started from Benguela, on sambo WOMAN", 
the Atlantic, in 1877, under the auspices of the 





GANGUELA WOMEN". 



360 



THE ZAMBESI. 



Portuguese Gover n m e n t 
and in two years reached 
the eastern coast. He was 
a careful observer of the 
people, and his journey was 
through the countries of 
the Nano, Huambo, Sambo, 
Moma, Bih^, Cubango, Gan- 
guelas, Luchazes and others, 
till he struck the Zambesi 
River. His observations of 
manners and customs are 
very valuable to the stu-. 
dent and curious to tlie 
general reader. His work 
abounds in types of African 
character, and in descrip- 
tions of that art of dressing hair which Christian ladies are ever 
willing to copy but in which they cannot excel their dusky 
sisters. It takes sometimes two or three days to build up, for 
African ladies, their triumphs of barbers' art, but they last for 
as many months. The Huambo people, male and female, enrich 




BIHE HEAD DRESS. 




QUIMBANDE GIRLS. 

their hair with coral beads in a way that sets it off with much 
effect. The Sambo women, tliough not so pretty in the face, 
affect a louder style of head dress, and one which may pass as 
more artistic. But Pinto was prepared to wonder how human 



THE ZAMBESI. 



361 




CABANGO HEAD DRESS. 

covered with cowries bespan- 
gled with coral beads. The 
Cabango women have a happy 
knack of thatching their heads 
with their hair in such a way 
as to give the impression that 
you are looking on an excel- 
lent job of Holland tiling, or 
on the over-lapping scales of a 
fish. 

The Luchaze women evi- 
dently take their models from 
the grass covers of their huts. 
They make a closelv woven 
mat of their hair which has 
the appearance of fitting the 
scalp like a cap. The Am- 
buella head dress is as neatly 



hair could ever be gotten into 
the various artistic shapes 
found on the heads of the 
Ganguela women. Their skill 
and patience in braiding seem- 
ed to be without limit. The 
Bihe head dress was more 
flaunting but not a whit less 
becoming Indeed there seem- 
ed in all the tribes to be a 
special adaptation of their art 
to form and features, but 
whether it was the result of 
study or accident, Pinto could 
not of course tell, being a man 
^ and not up in ladies' toilets. 
The Quimbande girls wore 
their hair comparatively 
straight, but their heads were 




LUCHAZE WOMAN. 



362 



THE ZAMBESI. 




AMBUELLA WOMAN. 



artistic as any modern lady 
could desire. Indeed tiiere 
is nothing in civilized coun- 
tries to approach it in its 
combination of beauty an(' 
adaption for the purpose.^ 
intended. 

Pinto's journey across 
Africa was one of compar- 
ative leisure. He was well . 
equipped, and was scarcely 
outside of a tribe that had 
not heard of Portuguese 
authority, which extends 
inland a great ways from 
"^^^^^^pWy both tlie east and west 
— -— "^~ "- ^"^ sides of the Continent. He 
did not however escape the 
ordinary hardshijts of Afri- 
can travel, even if he had time to observe and make record 
of many things which escaped the eye of other explorers. 

The high carnival, or annual festival, of the Sova Mavanda 
was a revelation to him. He had seen state feasts and war 
dances, but in this the dancing was conducted with a regularity 
seldom witnessed on the stage, and the centre of attraction was 
the Sova chief, masked after the fashion of a harlequin, and 
seemingly as much a part of the performance as a clown in a 
circus ring. 

The rivers of this part of Africa are a prominent obstacle in 
a traveller's path. Even where they are bordered by wide, sedgy 
swamps, tli^ere is in the centre a deep channel, and nearly always 
an absence of canoes. But the natives are quick to find out 
fording places which are generallj^ where the waters run swiftly 
over sand-bars. Pinto's passage of the Cuchibi was affected at 
a fording where the bar was very narrow, the water on either 
side 10 to 12 feet deep, and tlie current running at the rate of 
65 yards a minute It was a difficult task, but was compl'-ited 



THE ZAMBESI. 



363 



in less than two hours by his whole party, and without acci- 
dent. 

After striking the tributaries of the Zambesi, he followed them 
to their junction with the main stream in the very heart of 
Africa. Then he descended the Zambesi in canoes to the 




MASKED CHIEF AND SOVA DANCE. 

mouth of the Cuango, or Chobe, in the country of the Makalo- 
los. He passed by the Gonye Falls, and down through the 
Lusso Eapids, where safety depends entirely on the skill of the 
native canoemen. After passing these rapids, which occupy 
miles of the river's length, he came into the magnificent Barotze 



364: 



THE ZAMBESI. 



region where the river waters a finer plain than the Nile in 
any of its parts. But Livingstone has already made us familiar 
wdth, the Zambesi throughout all these parts. Yet it is due to 
Pinto to sav he made, with the instruments at his command, 
more careful observations of the great Victoria Falls (Mozi-oa- 




FORDING THE CUCHIBI. 

tunia) than any previous explorer, especially from below. He 
could not get a height of over 246 feet, owing to the difficulty 
of seeing to the bottom of the gorge, and found the verge 
broken into three sections, one of a width of 1312 feet, another 
of 132 feet, and the remainder a saw-like edge over which the 
waters poured smoothly only when the stream was full. 




VICTORIA lALL. FROM BELOW. 



(365) 



366 THE ZAMBESI. 

"These falls," says Pinto, "can be neither properly depicted 
nor described. The pencil and the pen are alike at fault, and 
in fact, save at their western extremity, the whole are enveloped 
in a cload of vapor which, perhaps fortunately, hides half the 
awfulness of the scene. It is not possible to survey this w^onder 
of nature without a feeling of terror and of sadness creeping 
over the mind. Up at the Gonye Falls everything is smiling 
and beautiful, here at Mozi-oa-tunia everything is frowning, and 
awful." 

Pinto's journey was now southward across the great Kalihari 
Desert, and thence to the eastern coast. We must go with him 
to the centre of this desert, for he unravels a secret there in 
the shape of " The Great Salt Pan." 

We remember Livingstone's discovery of Lake Ngami, into 
which and out of which pours the Cubango river, to be after- 
wards lost in the central Salt Pan of the desert. Pinto discov- 
ered that this "Salt Pan" received, in the rainy season, many 
other large tributaries, and then became an immense lake, or 
rather system of pans or lakes, ten to fifteen feet deep and from 
50 to 150 miles long. This vast system, he says, communicates 
with Lake Ngami by means of the Cubango, or Zonga River, 
on nearly the same level. If Ngami rises by means of its inflow, 
the current is down the Cubango toward the "Salt Paus." If 
however the " Pans" overflow, by means of their other tributaries, 
the current is up the Cubango toward Lake Ngami. So that 
among the other natural wonders of Africa we have not only a 
system of great rivers pouring themselves into an inland sea 
with no outlet except the clouds, but also a great river actually 
flowing two ways for a distance of over a hundred miles, as 
tlie one or the other lake on its course happens to be fullesto 



THE cofieo, 



1 AKE TANGANYIKA had been known to the Arab slave 
1 hunters of the east coast of Africa long before the white 
man gazed upon its bright blue waters. These cunning, 
cruel people had good reasons for guarding well the secret of 
its existence. Yet popular report of it gave it many an imagi- 
nary location and dimension. What is remarkable about it is 
that since it has been discovered and located, it has taken 
various lengths and shapes under the eye of different observers, 
and though it has been circumnavigated, throughout its 1200 
miles of coast, no one can yet be quite positive whether it has 
an outlet or not. 

It is 600 miles inland from Zanzibar, or the east coast of 
Africa, and almost in the centre of that wonderful basin whose 
reservoirs contribute to the Nile, Zambesi and Congo. The 
route from Zanzibar half way to the lake is a usual one, and 
we need not describe it. The balance of the way, through 
the Ugogo and Unyamwezi countries, is surrounded by the 
richest African verdure and diversified by running streams and 
granitic slopes, with occasional crags.' At length the mountain 
ranges which surround the lake are reached, and when crossed 
there appear on the eastern shore the thatched houses of Ujiji, 
the rendevouz of all expeditions, scientific, commercial and 
missionary, that have ever reached these mysterious waters. 

Burton and Speke were the white discoverers of Tanganyika. 
It seemed to them the revelation of a new world — a sight to 
make men hold their breath with a rush of new thoughts, as 
when Bilboa and his men stood silent on that peak in Darien 
and gazed upon the Pacific Ocean. 

Fifteen years later Cameron struck it and could not believe 
that the vast grey expanse was aught else than clouds on the 
distant mountains of Ugoma, till closer observation proved the 
contrary. 

(367) 



368 



THE CONGO. 



Livingstone struck it from the west side. It was on his last 
journey through Africa. He had entered upon that journey at 
Zanzibar, in April 1866, and made for Lake Nyassa and its out- 
let the Shire Kiver, botli of which have been described m con- 
nection with the' Zambesi. 




BURTON AND SPEKE ON TANGANYIKA. 



Then began that almost interminable ramble to which he fell 
a victim. He was full of the theory that no traveller had yet 
seen the trur^ head waters of the Nile — in other words that 
neither Victoria nor Albert Nyanza were its ultimate reservoirs, 
but that they were to be found far below the equator in that 
bewildering " Lalce Eegion" which never failed to reveal won- 
derful secrets to such as sought with a patience and persistency 
1 ke his own. 

lie v.as sup]M)rted in this by the myths of the oldest histor- 



THE CONGO. 369 

ian3, by the earliest guesses whicli took the shape of maps, by 
the traditions of the natives that boats had actually passed from 
Albert ISTyanza into Tanganyika, but above all by the delusion 
that the great river Lualaba, which he afterwards found flowing 
northward from lakes far to the south of Tangan^nka, could not 
be other than the Nile itself 

On his way westward from Lake Nyassa, he came upon the 
Loangwa River, a large afflaent of the Zambesi from the north. 
Crossing this, and bearing northwest, he confronted the Lokinga 
Mountains, from whose crests he looked down into the valley of 
the Chambesi. It was clear that these mountains formed a shed 
which divided the waters of the central basin, or lake region, 
of Africa from those which ran south into the Zambesi. Had 
he discovered the true sources of the Nile at last? Where did 
those waters go to, if not to the Mediterranean? The journal 
of his last travels is full of soliloquies and refrains touching 
the glory of a discovery which should vindicate his theory and 
set discussion at rest. 

And what was he really looking down upon from that mountain 
height? The Chambesi — affluent of Lake Bangweola? Yes. 
But vastly more. Pie was looking on the head waters of the 
northward running Lualaba, which proved his ignis fatuus and 
led him a six year dance through the wilderness and to his 
grave. The Lualaba has been christened Livingstone River, in 
honor of the great explorer. Then again it was only the Luala- 
ba in name, which he was pursuing, with the hope that it 
would turn out to be the Nile. It was really the great Congo, 
for after the Lualaba runs northeast toward Albert Nyanza, and 
to a point far above the equator, it makes a magnificent sweep 
westward, and south westward, and seeks the Atlantic at a point 
not ten degrees above the latitude of its source. 

Thus was Livingstone perpetually deceived. But for all that 
we must ever admire his enthusiasm for research and his 
heroism under extreme difficulties. "When he plunged down the 
mountain side into the depths of the forests that lined the 
Chambesi, it was to enter a night of wandering which had no 
star except the meeting of Stanley at Ujiji in 1871, and no 
24 



370 THE CONGO. 

morning at all. What a storv of heroic adventure lies in those 
years ! 

Ere his death, his followers had deserted him, carrying back 
to the coast lying stories of his having been murdered. Trusted 
servants ran away with his medicine chest, leaving him no 
means of fighting the 'deadly diseases which from that hour 
began to break down his strength. The country ahead had 
been wasted and almost emptied of inhabitants by the slave- 
traders. Hunger and thirst were the daily companions of his 
march. Constant exposure to wet brought on rheumatism and 
ague; painful ulcers broke out in his feet; pneumonia, dysentery, 
cholera, miasmatic fever, attacked him by turns; but still, so 
long as his strength was not utterly prostrated, the daily march 
had to be accomphshed. Still more trying than the fatigue were 
the vexatious delays, extending sometimes over many months, 
caused by wars, epidemics, or inundation, that frequently com- 
pelled him to retrace his steps when apparently on the verge 
of some great discovery. Often, in order to make progress, he 
had no alternative but to attach his party to some Arab expe- 
dition which, under pretence of ivory -trading, had come out to 
plunder, to kidnap, and to murder. The terrible scenes of 
misery and slaughter of which he was thus compelled to be 
the witness, had perhaps a stronger and more depressing effect 
on his mind than all the other trials that fell to his lot. "I 
am heart-broken and sick of the sight of human blood," he 
writes, as he turns, baffled, weary, and broken in health from 
one line of promising exploration to another. 

He has left us oiily rough jottings of. this story of wild 
adventure and strange discovery. For weeks at a time no 
entries are found in his journal. The hand that should have 
written them was palsied with fever, the busy brain stunned 
into unconsciousness, and the tortured body borne by faithful 
attendants through novel scenes on which the eager explorer 
could no longer open his eyes. His letters were stolen by 
Arabs — both those going to and coming from him. Yet his 
disjointed notes, written on scraps of old newspapers with ink 
manufactured by himself out of the seeds of native plants, tell a 



THE CONGO. 



371 



more affecting tale of valuable discovery than many a carefully- 
written narrative. 

He gives us glimpses into the Ohambesi jungles, whose popu- 
lation has been almost swept away by the slave dealers. Fires 
sweep over tlie virgin lands in the dry season. A single year 
restores to them their wonted verdure. Song birds relieve the 
stillness of the African forests, but those of gayest plumage are 
silent. The habits of bees, ants, beetles and spiders are noted, 
and of the ants, found in all parts of Africa, those in these 
central regions build the most palatial structures. The most 




ANT HILL 13 FEET HIGH, 



ferocious enemy of the explorer is not the portentous weapon 
of lion's claw, rhinoceros' horn, or elephant's tusk, but a small 
fly — the notorious tsetse, whose bite is death to baggage ani- 
mals, whose swarms have brought ruin to many a promising 
expedition, and whose presence is a more effectual barrier to 
the progress of civilization than an army of a million natives. 

Then he is full of quaint observations on the lion, for which 
he had little respect, and on the more lordly elephant and rhin- 
oceros. A glade suddenly opens where a group of shaggy buf- 
faloes are grazing, or a herd of startled giraffes scamper away 
through the foliage with their long necks looking like "locomo- 
tive obelisks." Then comes a description of a hippopotamus 
hunt — •" the bravest thing I ever saw." 

Again the night is often made hideous by the shrieks of the 
soko — probably the gorilla of Du Chaillu, and of which Cam- 




CHIMPANZEE 

(372) 



GIEBOJSr. 
GORILLA. 



ORAJSTG. 



THE CONGO. 373 

eron heard on Tanganyika and Stanley on the Lualaba. But 
only Livingstone has given us authentic particulars of it. Its 
home is among the trees, but it can run on the ground with 
considerable speed, using its long fore-arms as crutches, and 
" hitching " itself along on its knuckles. In some respects it 
behaves quite humanly. It makes a rough bed at night among the 
trees, and will draw a spear from its body and staunch the wound 
with grass. It is a pot-bellied, wrinkled-faced, human- featured 
animal with incipient whiskers and beard. It will not attack an 
unarmed man or woman but will spring on a man armed with 
a spear or stick. In attack it will seize the intruder in its pow- 
erful arms, get his hand into its mouth, and one by one bite 
off his fingers and spit them out. It has been known to kidnap 
babies, and carry them up into the trees, but this seems to be more 
out of sport than mischief. In his family relations the male soko 
is a model of affection — assisting the mother to carry her young 
and attending strictly to the proprieties of soko society. A 
young soko which was in the doctor's possession had many 
intelligent and winning ways, showed great affection and grati- 
tude, was careful in making its bed and tucking itself in every 
night, and scrupulously wiped its nose with leaves. In short, it 
must be allowed, that the native verdict, that the "soko has 
good in him," is borne out by the known facts, and that in some 
respects he compares not unfavorably, both in character and 
manners, with some of the men we make acquaintance with in 
our wanderings through Africa. 

It was in April 1867, one year after his start from Zanzibar, 
that Livingstone crossed- the Chambesi, and soon afterwards 
found himself on the mountains overlooking Lake Liemba, which 
proved to be non-e other than the southern point of our old 
friend Lake Tanganyika. Thence he zigzagged westward over 
sponge covered earth till he struck Lake Moero, with a stream 
flowing into its southern end — really the Lualaba, on its way 
from Lake Bangweola — and out at its northern — again the 
Lualaba — into other lakes which the natives spoke of. Now, 
more than ever before, he was persuaded that he was on the 
headwaters of the Nile, and he would have followed his river up 



374 



THE CONGO. 



only to surprise himself by coming out into the Atlantic through 
the mouth of the great Congo, if it had not been for native 
wars ahead. 

Then he put back to examine a great lake of this river 
system which the natives said existed south of Lake Moero. 
After a tramp of weeks through wet and dry, he found himself 
on the marshy banks of Lake Bangweola. Close by where he 
struck it, was its outlet, the Lualaba, here known as Luapula. 




A SOKO HUNT. 

It is a vast reservoir, 200 miles long by 130 broad, and has 
no picturesque surroundings, but is interspersed with many 
beautifal islands. 

Confident now that he had the true source of the Nile — for 
the water-shed to the south told him that every thing below it 
ran into the Zambesi — nothing remained but for him to return 



THE CONGO. t 375 

to wliere lie had left off' his survey of the Lualaba, far to the 
north, and to follow that stream till he proved the truth of 
his theory. In going thither he would take in Lake Tangan- 
yika. It was a terrible journey. For sixteen days he was 
carried in a litter under a burning sun, through marshy hollows 
and over rough hills. Sight of Tanganyika revived his droop- 
ing spirits, but he feared he must die before reaching Ujiji. It 
was March 1869, before he reached the coveted resting place, 
but he found awaiting him no aid, no medicines, no letters. 
He had been dead to the world for three long years. King 
Mirambo was off on the war-path against the Arabs, and 
Livingstone had to wait, undergoing slow recovery for many 
months. 

At length, following in the trail of Arab slave dealers who 
had never before penetrated so far westward of the lake, and 
frequent witness of their barbarities, he reached a point on the 
Lualaba as far north as ISTyangwe, where the river already 
began to take the features of cliff and canon which Stanley 
found to belong to the lower Congo, and where the natives 
showed the prevalence of those caste ideas which prevail on the 
western coast but are unknown on the eastern. The region was 
also one of gigantic woods, into which the sun's rays never 
penetrated, and beneath which were pools of water which never 
dried up. The river flats were a mass of luxuriant jungle, 
abounding in animal life. Livingstone was greatly annoyed at one 
of his halting places by the depredations of leopards on his 
little flock of goats. A snare gun was set for the offenders. 
It was heard to go off one night, and his attendants rushed to 
the scene with their lances. The prize had been struck and 
both its hind legs were broken. It was thought safe to approach 
it, but when one of the party did so, the stricken beast sprang 
upon the man's shoulder and tore him fearfully before being 
killed. He was a huge male and measured six feet eight inches 
from nose to tail. 

Nyangwe, the furthest point of his journey up, or rather 
down, the Lualaba, or Congo, is in the country of the Man- 
yuema, the finest race Livingstone had seen in Africa. The 













L ■■ / ■ yr-.ff^-y'-'-v-t 







THE CONGO, 



377 



females are beautiful in feature and form. The country is 
tiiickly peopled, and they have made considerable progress m 
agriculture and tlie arts. Villages appear at intervals of every 
two or tliree miles. The houses are neatly built, with red painted 
walls, thatched roofs, and high doorways. The inhabitants are 
clever smiths, weavers and tanners, and all around are banana 




NYANGWE MARKET. 

groves and fields tilled in maize, potatoes and tapioca. The 
chiefs are important personages, who exercise arbitrary author- 
ity and dress regally. Livingstone suspected they practised, cani- 
bahsm, but could not prove it. Stanley noticed a row of 180 
skulls decorating one of their village streets. He was' told they 
were soko skulls, but carrying two away, he presented them to 
Prof. Huxley, who pronounced them negro craniums of the 
usual type. 



378 THE CONGO. 

One of their great institutions is the market, held in certain 
villages on stated days. People come to these from great dis- 
tances to exchange their fish, goats, ivory, oil, pottery, skins, 
cloth, ironware, fruit, vegetables, salt, grain, fowls, and even slaves. 
There is a great variety of costume, loud crying of wares, much 
bargaining and no inconsiderable hilarity. The market at Nyan- 
gwe is held every four days, and the assemblage numbers as 
many as 3000 people. Even in war times market people are 
allowed to go to and fro without molestation. 

The Arab slave traders are fast demoralizing these people. 
They set the different tribes to fighting and then step in and carry 
off multitudes of slaves. One fine market day these miscreants 
suddenly appeared among the throng of unsuspecting people 
and began an indiscriminate firing. They fled in all directions, 
many jumping into the river. The sole object of the slave 
stealers was to strike terror into the hearts of the inhabitants 
by showing the power of a gun. Livingstone witnessed this 
unprovoked massacre and thought that five hundred innocent 
lives were lost in it. 

He found the Lualaba a full mile wide at Nyangwe, and 
still believed it to be the Nile. In this firm belief he ceased to 
follow the stream further and turned his weary feet back to 
Ujiji on Tanganyika. It will always be a mystery how Living- 
stone could have nursed his delusion that he was on the Nile, 
for so long a time. The moment Cameron set his eyes on the 
Lualaba, he saw that it could not be the Nile, for its volume 
of water was many times larger than that of the Nile, and 
moreover its level was many hundred feet lower than the White 
Nile at Gondokoro. And though Stanley had the profoundest 
respect for the views of the great explorer, he hardly doubted 
that in descending the Lualaba he would emerge into the Atlan- 
tic through the mouth of the great Congo. 

Now while Livingstone is struggling foot-sore, sick, dejected, 
almost deserted, back to Ujiji on the Lake Tanganyika, for rest, 
for medicine, for news from home, after he has been lost foi- 
five long years, and after repeated rumors of his death had been sent 
from Zanzibar to England, what is taking place in the outside world ? 



THE CONGO. 379 

On October 16, 1869, Henry M. Stanley, a correspondent of 
the New York Herald, was at Madrid in Spain. On that date 
he received a dispatch from James Gordon Bennett, owner of 
the Herald, dated Paris. It read, " Come to Paris on important 
business." 

With an American correspondent's instinct and promptitude, 
Mr. Stanley knocked at Mr. Bennett's door on the next niglit. 

"Who are you?" asked Bennett. 

"Stanley," was the reply. 

" Yes ; sit down. Where do you think Livingstone is ? ' 

" I do not know sir." 

" Well, I think he is alive and can be found. I am going to 
send you to find him." 

" What ! Do you really think I can find Livingstone ? Do 
you mean to send me to Central Africa ? " 

"Yes, I mean you shall find him wherever he is. Get what 
news you can of him. And, may be he is in want. Take enough 
with you to help him. Act according to your own plans. 
But — -find Livingstone^ 

By January, 1871, Stanley was at Zanzibar. He hired an 
escort, provided himself with a couple of boats, and in 236 days, 
after an adventurous journey, was at Ujiji on Tanganyika. 

It was November, 1871. For weary months two heroes had 
been struggling in opposite directions in the African wilds — 
Livingstone eastward from ISTyangwe on the Lualaba, to find 
succor at Ujiji on Tanganyika Lake, Stanley westward from 
Zanzibar to carry that succor and greetings, should the great 
explorer be still alive. 

Providence had a hand in the meeting. Livingstone reached 
Ujiji just before Stanley. On November 2, Stanley, while push- 
ing his way up the slopes which surrounded Tanganyika met a 
caravan. He asked the news, and was thrilled to find that a 
white man had just reached Ujiji, from the Manyuema, 

" A white man ? " 

" Yes, a white man." 

"How is hf: dressed?" 

*' Like you." 



880 



THE CONGO. 



'■ Young, or old?" "Old; white liair, and sick." 
" Was he ever there before? " 





Stanley's first sight of Tanganyika. 

"Yes; a long time ago." 

"Hurrah!" shouted Stanley, "it is Livingstone. March quickly 
aij men. He may go away again 1 " 



THE CONGO. 



881 



They pressed up the slopes and in a few days were in sight 
of Tanganyika. The looked for hour was at hand. 

" Unfurl your flags and load your guns I " he cried to his com- 
panions. 

" We will, master, we will ! " 

"One, two, three — fire I" 




MEETING OF LIVINGSTONE AND STANLEY. 

A volley from fifty guns echoed along the hills. Ujiji was 
awakened. A caravan was coming, and the streets were thronged 
to greet it. The American flag was at first a mystery, but the 
crowd pressed round the new comers. Stanley pushed h^'s way 
eagerly, all ej^es about him. 

" Good morning, sir ! " 

'■ "Who are you? " he startlingly inquired. 

" Susi ; Dr. Livingstone's servant." 

" Is Livingstone here ? " 



382 THE CONGO. 

" Sure, sir ; sure. I have just left him." 

"Run, Susi; and tell the Doctor I am coming." 

Susi obeyed. Every minute the crowd was getting denser. 
At length Susi came breaking through to ask the stranger's 
name. The doctor could not understand it all, and had sent to 
find out, but at the same time in obedience to his curiosity, had 
come upon the street. 

Stanley saw him and hastened to where he was. 

"Dr. Livingstone, I presume." 

"Yes," said he with a cordial smile, lifting his hat. 

They grasped each other's hands. "Thank God!" said Stan- 
ley, "I have, been permitted to see you!" 

" Thankful I am that I am here to welcome you," was the 
doctor's reply. 

They turned toward the house, and remained long together, 
telling each other of their adventures ; hearing and receiving 
news. At length Stanley delivered his batch of letters from 
home to the doctor, and he retired to read them. 

Then came a long and happy rest for both the explorers. 
Livingstone improved in health and spirits daily. His old enthu- 
siasm was restored and he would be on his travels again. But 
he was entirely out of cloth and trinkets, was reduced to a 
retinue of five men, and had no money to hire more. 

One day Stanley said, "have you seen the north of Tangan- 
yika yet?" 

"No; I tried to get there, but could not. I have no doubt 
that Tanganyika as we see it here is really the Upper Tangan- 
yika, that the Albert ISTyanza of Baker is the Lower Tangan- 
yika, and that they are connected by a river." 

Poor fellow! Did ever mortal man cling so to a delusion, 
put such faith in native stories and old traditions. 

Stanley proposed to lend his assistance to the doctor, to settle 
the question of Tanganyika's northern outlet. The doctor con- 
sented; and now began a journey, which was wholly unlike the 
doctor's five year tramp. He Avas in a boat and had a conge- 
nial and enthusiastic companion. 

Tanganyika, like the Albert Nyanza which pours a Nile 



384 THE CONGO. 

flood, and Nyassa whicli flows througli the Shir^ into the 
Zambesi, is an immense trough sunk far below the table-land 
which occupies the whole of Central Africa. Its surrounding 
mountains are high. Its length is nearly 500 miles, its waters 
deep, clear and brackish. Whither does it send its surplus 
waters? 

We have seen that Livingstone was sure it emptied through 
the Nile. This was what he and Stanley were to prove. In 
November 1871, three weeks after the two had so providentially 
met at Ujiji, they were on their voyage in two canoes. They 
coasted till they came to what Burton and Speke supposed to 
be the end of the lake, which turned out to be a huge prom- 
ontory. Beyond this the lake widens and stretches for sixty 
miles further, overhung with mountains 7000 feet high. At 
length they reached the northern extremity where they had 
been assured by the natives that the waters flowed through an 
outlet. No outlet there. On the contrary seven broad inlets 
puncturing the reeds, through which the Rusizi River poured its 
volume of muddy water into the lake, from the north. Here 
was disappointment, yet a revelation. No Nile source in 
Tanganyika — at least not Avhere it was expected to be found. 
Its outlet must be sought for elsewhere. Some thought it 
might connect eastward with Nyassa. But what of the great 
water-shed between the two lakes? Others thought it might 
have its outpour this way and that. Livingstone, puzzled 
beyond propriety, thought it might have an underground outlet 
into the Lualaba, and even went so far as to repeat a native 
story in support of his notion, that at a point in the Ugoma 
mountains the roaring of an underground river could be heard 
for miles. 

Nothing that Livingstone and Stanley did, helped to solve the 
mystery of an outlet, except their discovery of the Rusizi, at 
the north, which was an inlet. After a three weeks cruise they 
returned to Ujiji, whence Stanley started back for Zanzibar, 
accompanied part way by Livingstone. After many days' journey 
they came to Unyanyembe where they parted forever, Stanley 
to hasten to Zanzibar and Livingstone to return to the wilds to 



THE CONGO. 885 

iettle finally the Nile secret. Stanley protested, owing to the 
doctor's physical condition. But the enthusiasm of travel and 
research was upon him to the extent that he would "not hear 

Stanley had left ample supplies at Unyanyembe. These he 
divided with the doctor, so that he was well off in this respect. 
He further promised to hire a band of porters for him at Zanzi- 
bar and send them to him in the interior. They parted on 
March 13, 1872. 

"God guide you home safe, and bless you, my friend," were 
the doctor's words. 

"And may God bring you safe back to us all, my dear friend! 
Farewell!" 

"Farewell!" 

This was the last word Doctor Livingstone ever spoke to a 
white man. They wrung each other's hands. Stanley was over- 
come, and turned away. He cried to his men, " Forward March ! " 
and the sad scene closed. 

Livingstone waited at Unyanyembe for the escort Stanley had 
promised to send. They came by August, and on the 14 of 
the month (1872) he started for the southern point of Tangan- 
yika, which he rounded, to find no outlet there. Then he 
struck for Lake Bangweolo, intending to solve all its river 
mysteries. That lake was to him an ultimate reservoir for all 
waters flowing north, and if the Lualaba should prove to be the 
Nile, then he felt he had its true source. 

This journey was a horrible one in every respect. It rained 
almost incessantly. The path was miry and amid dripping -grass 
and cane. The country was fiat and the rivers all swollen. It 
was impossible to tell river from marsh. The country was not 
inhabited. Food grew scarce. The doctor became so weak that 
he had to be carried across the rivers on the back of his trusty 
servant Susi. One stream, crossed on January 24, 1873, was 
2000 feet wide and so deep that the waters reached Susi's 
mouth, and the doctor got as wet as his carrier. 

These were the dark, dismal surroundings of Lake Bangweolo. 
Amid such hardships they skirted the northern side of the lake, 
crossed the Chambesi at its eastern end, where the river is 300 
25 



386 



THE CONGO. 



yards wide and 18 feet deep, and turned their faces westward 
along the south side. 

The doctor was now able to walk no further. When he tried 
to climb on his donkey he fell to the ground from sheer weak- 
ness. His faithful servants took him on their shoulders, or bore 




THE STEEAM CAME UP TO SUSl's MOUTH. 

him along in a rudely constructed htter. On April 27, 1873, 
his last entry reads, "Knocked up quite, and remain— recover — 
sent to buy milch goats. We are on banks of the K. Molilamo." 
His last day's march was on a litter through interminable 
marsh and rain. His bearers had to halt often, so violent were 
his pains and so great his exhaustion. He spoke kindly to his 



388 THE CONGO. 

humble attendants and asked Tiow many days' marcli it was to 
the Lualaba. 

Susi replied that " it was a three days' march." 
"Then," said the dying man, "I shall never see my river 
ao-ain." The malarial poison was already benumbing his faculties. 
Even the fountains of the Nile had faded into dimness before 
his mind's eye. 

He was placed in a hut in Chitambo's village, on April 29, 
after his last day's journey, where he lay in a semi-conscious 
state through the night, and the day of April 30. At 11 P. M. 
on the night of the 30, Susi was called in and the doctor told 
him he wished him to boil some water, and for this purpose 
he went to the fire outside, and soon returned with the copper 
kettle full. Calling him close, he asked him to bring his 
medicine-chest, and to hold the candle near him, for the man 
noticed he could hardly see. With great difficulty Dr. Living- 
stone selected the calomel, which he told him to place by 
his side; then, directing him to pour a little water into a cup, 
and to put another empty one by it, he said in a low, feeble 
voice, "All right; you can go out now." These were the last 
words he was ever heard to speak. 

It must have been about 4 A. M. when Susi heard Majwara's 
step once more. "Come to Bwana, I am afraid; I don't know 
if he is alive." The lad's evident alarm made Susi run to 
arouse Chuma, Chowpere, Matthew, and Muanuasere, and the 
«ix men went immediately to the hut. 

Passing inside, they looked toward the bed. Dr. Livingstone 
was not lying on it, but appeared to be engaged in prayer, and 
^hey instinctively drew backward for the instant. Pointing to 
him, Majwara said, "When I lay down he was just as he is 
now, and it is because I find that he does not move that I 
fear he is dead." They asked the lad how long he had slept. 
Majwara said he could not tell, but he was sure that it was 
some considerable time: the men drew nearer. 

A candle, stuck by its own wax to the top of the box, shed 
a light sufficient for them to see his form. Dr. Livingstone 
was kneeling by the side of his bed, his body -stretched forward, 



THE CONGO. 



his head buried in his hands upon the pillow. For a minute 
they watched him: he did not stir, there was no sign of breath- 
ing; then one of them, Matthew, advanced softly to him and 
placed his hands to his cheeks. It was sufficient; life had been 
extinct some time, and the body was almost cold: Livingstone 
was dead. 




DEATH OF LIVINGSTONE. 



His sad-hearted servants raised him tenderly up and laid him 
full length on the bed. They then went out to consult together, 
and v/hile there they heard the cocks crow. It was therefore 
between midnight and morning of May 1, 1873, his spirit had 
taken its flight. His last African journey began in 1866. 

The noble Christian philanthropist, the manful champion of 
the weak and oppressed, the unwearied and keen-eyed lover of 
nature, the intrepid explorer whose name is as inseparably con- 
nected with Africa as that of Columbus is with America, had 



390 THE CONGO. 

sunk down exhausted in the very heart of the continent, with 
his Hfe-long work still unfinished. His highest praise is that he 
spent thirty years in the darkest haunts of cruelty and savagery 
and yet never shed the blood of his fellow-man. The noblest 
testimony to his character and his influence is the conduct of 
that faithful band of native servants who had followed his for- 
tunes so long and so far, and who, embalming his body, and 
secretly preserving all his papers and possessions, carried safely 
back over the long weary road to the coast all that remained 
of the hero and his work. 

Cameron was on his way toward Ujiji to rescue Livingstone 
when he heard of his death. He pursued his journey and 
reached Lake Tanganyika, determined to unravel the mystery 
of its outlet. He started on a sailing tour around the lake in 
March 1874. His flag boat was the "Betsy." He only got 
half way round, but in this distance he counted the mouths 
of a hundred rivers, and found the shores constantly advancing 
in bold headlands and receding in deep bays. Both land and 
water teem with animal life. Elephants abounded in the 
jungles, rhinoceri and hippopotami were frequently seen, and 
many varieties of fish were caught. In one part the cliffs of the 
shores were sandstone, in another they were precipices of black 
marble, here were evidences of a coal formation, there crags of 
chalk whose bases were as clearly cut by the waves as if done 
with a knife. In many places cascades tumbled over the crags 
showing that the table land above was like a sponge filled with 
moisture. 

The native boatmen were lazy and full of superstitions. Every 
crag and island seemed to be the resort of a demon of some 
kind, whose power for harm had no limit in their imaginations. 
Never but once, and that in the country of King Kasongo, had he 
seen the natives fuller of credulity nor more subject to the 
powers of witchcraft and magic. Their stories of the various 
forms of devils which dwelt in out of the way places were 
wilder than any childish fiction, and their magicians had unbridled 
control of their imaginations. 

Cameron's course was southward from Ujiji. He turned the 



THE CONGO. 891 

southern end of the lake and found no outlet there. But he 




KING KASONGO'S MAGICIANS. 

saw some of the most extraordinary examples of rock and tree 
scenerj in the world. There were magnificent terraces of rock 



392 THE CONGO. 

wliicla looked as if they had been built by the hands of man, and 
scattered and piled in fantastic confusion were over-hanging 
blocks, rocking stones, obelisks, and pyramids All were over- 
hung with trees whose hmbs were matted together by creepers. 
It was like a transformation scene in a pantomime rather than a 
part of Mother Earth, and one seemed to await the opening of 
the rocks and the appearance of the spirits. Not long to wait 
The creepers sway and are pulled apart. An army of monkeys 
swing themselves into the foreground and, hanging by their paws, 
stop and chatter and gibber at the strange sight of a boat. A 
shout from the boatmen, and they are gone with a concerted 
scream which echoes far and wide along the shores. 

The inhabitants are not impressive or numerous on the shores, 
yet they show art in dress, and in manufactures. They have 
been terribly demorahzed by the slave traders, and many sections 
depopulated entirely. While sailing up the western shore of the 
lake, Cameron thought he found what was the long sought for 
outlet of Tanganyika — the traditional connecting link between it 
and Lakes Ngami and Albert Nyanza. Of a sudden the 
mountains broke away and a huge gap appeared in the shores. 
There was evidently a river there, and his boat appeared to be 
in a current setting toward it. The natives said it was the Lu- 
kuga, and that it flowed out of the lake westward toward the 
Lualaba. 

But alas for human credulity. Cameron ran into the Lukuga 
for seven or eight miles, found it a reedy lagoon, without cur- 
rent, stood up in his boat and looked seven or eight miles 
further toward a break in the hills, beyond which he was told 
the river ran away in a swift current from the lake, and then 
he returned home to tell the wondrous story. Tanganyika had 
an outlet after all. The wise men all said, " I told you so ; 
the lake is no more mysterious than any other." Why Cameron 
should have stopped short on the eve of so great a discovery, or 
why he should have palmed off a native story as a scientific 
fact, can only be accounted for by the fact that he was sick 
during most of his cruise and at times delirious with fever. 
While it was thought that he had clarified the Tanganyika 



THE CONGO. 393 

situation, it was really more of a mystery than wlien Burton and 
Speke, or Livingstone and Stanley, left it. 

We here strike again the track of our own explorer Stanley. 
We have already followed him on his first African journey to 
Ujiji to find Livingstone, in 1871-72. We have seen also in our 
article on "The Sources of the Nile," how he started on his 
second journey in 1874, determined to complete the work of 
Livingstone, by clearing up all doubts about the Nile sources. 
This involved a two-fold duty, first to fully investigate the Lakes 
Yictoria Nyanza and Albert Nyanza; second the outlets of Tan- 
ganyika and the secret of the great Lualaba, which had so mys- 
tified Livingstone. 

In pursuit of this mission we followed him to Yictoria 
Nyanza, on his second journey, and saw how he was entertained 
by King Mtesa, and what adventures he had on the Victoria 
Nyanza, He settled it beyond doubt that the Yictoria was a 
single large lake, with many rivers running into it, the chief 
of which was the Alexandra Nile. This done, he had hoped 
to visit Albert Nyanza, but the hostility of the natives pre- 
vented. He therefore turned southwestward toward Tanganyika, 
and on his way fell in with the old King Mirambo with whom 
he ratified a friendship by the solemn ceremony of "blood 
brotherhood." The American and African sat opposite each 
other on a rug. A native chief then made an incision in the 
right leg of Mirambo and Stanley, drew a little blood from 
each, and exchanged it with these words: — "If either of you 
break this brotherhood now established between you, may the 
lion devour him, the serpent poison him, bitterness be his food, 
his friends desert him, his gun burst in his hands and every- 
thing that is bad do wrong to him until his death." 

On May 27, 1876, Stanley reached Ujiji, where he had met 
Livingstone in 1871. Sadly did he recall the fact that the 
" grand old hero " who had once been tlie centre of absorbing 
interest in that fair scene of water, mountain, sunshine and palm, 
was gone forever. He came equipped to circumnavigate the 
lake. He had along his boat, the "Lady Alice," built lightly 
and in sections for just this kind of work. Leaving the bulk 



394 THE CONGO. 

of liis extensive travelling party at Ujiji, well provided for, lie 
took along only a sufficient crew for his boat, under two guides, 
Para, who had been Cameron's attendant in 1874, and Euango 
who had piloted Livingstone and Stanley in 1871. 

Once again the goodly "Lady Alice" was afloat, as she had 
been on Victoria Nyanza. He cruised along the shores for 51 
days, travelled a distance of 800 miles, or within 125 miles of 
the entire circumference of the lake, and got back without 
serious sickness or the loss of a man. He found it a sealed 
lake everywhere — that is, with waters flowing only into it — 
none out of it. 

What then became of Cameron's wonderful story about the 
outlet of the Lukuga? Stanley looked carefully into this. He 
found a decided current running down the river into the lake. 
He pushed up the river to the narrow gorge in the mountains, 
beyond which the natives said the Lukuga ran westward toward 
the Lualaba. There he found a true and false story. In this 
ancient mountain gap was a clear divide of the Lukuga waters. 
Part ran by a short course into Tanganyika; part westward 
into the Lualaba. Stanley was of the opinion that the waters 
of the lake were rising year by year, and that in the course of 
time there would be a constant overflow through the Lukuga 
and into the Lualaba, as perhaps there had been long ages ago. 
Even now there is not much difference between the level of the 
lake and the marshes found in the mountain gap beyond, and 
Mr. Hore, who has since visited the Lukuga gap, says he found 
a strong current setting out of the lake westward, so that the 
time may have already come which Stanley predicted. 

This Lukuga gap probably represents the fracture of an earth- 
quake through which the waters of the lake escaped in former 
ages and which has been its safety-valve at certain times since. 
"When it is full it may, therefore, be said to have an outlet. 
When not full its waters pass off by evaporation. It is only a 
semi-occasional contribution— if one at all— to the floods of the 
great Congo, and in this respect has no counterpart in the 
world. All of which settles the point of its connection with the 
Nile, and leaves the sources of that river to the north. Had 



THE CONGO. 



895 



Livingstone known this lie could have saved himself the last 
two years of his journey and the perils and sickness which led 
to his death in the wilderness. 




A WEIR BRIDGE. 



And now Stanley had clarified the situation behind him, 
which stretched over 800 miles of African continent. But look- 



396 THE CONGO. 

ins toward the Atlantic, there lay stretched a 1000 miles of abso- 
lutely unknown country. Into this he plunged, and pursued his 
course till he struck the great northward running river — ^the 
Lualaba. 

The path was broken and difficult. Eivers ran frequent and 
deep, and crossing was a source of delay, except where, occa- 
sionally, ingeniously constructed bridges were found, which 
answered the double purpose of crossing and fish-weir. These 
are built of poles, forty feet long, driven into the bed of the 
stream and crossing each other near the top. Other poles are 
laid lengthwise at the point of junction, and all are securely tied 
together with bamboo ropes. Below them the nets of the fish- 
ermen are spread, and over them a person may pass in safety. 
Stanley's party had been greatly thinned out, but it still con- 
sisted of 140 men. Cameron had found it impossible to follow 
the Lualaba. Livingstone had tried it again and again, to meet 
a more formidable obstacle in the hostility of the natives than 
in the forests, fens and animals Could Stanley master its secret ? 
He was better equipped than any of his predecessors, just as 
earnest, and not averse to using force where milder means could 
not avail. He had settled so many knotty African problems, that 
this the greatest of all had peculiar fascination for him. He would 
"freeze to this river" and see whether it went toward the Nile, 
or come out, as he suspected it would, through the Congo into 
the Atlantic. 

It was a mighty stream where he struck it, at the mouth of 
the Luama — "full 1400 yards wide and moving with a placid 
current" — and close to Nyangwe which was the highest point 
Livingstone had reached. Here he marshalled his forces for the 
unknown depths beyond. He had only one of his European 
attendants left— Frank Pocock. Not a native attendant faltered. 
It would have been death to desert, in that hostile region. 
Such woods, so tall, dense and sombre, the traveller had 
never before seen. Those of Uganda and Tanganyika were 
mere jungle in comparison. Even the Manyuema had pene- 
trated but a httle their depths. They line the course of the 
Lualaba for 1500 miles from Nyangwe. At first Stanley's part/ 



THE CONGO. 397 

was well protected, for ahead, of it went a large group of Arab 
traders. It was the opinion of these men that the " Lualaba 
flowed northward forever." Soon the Arabs tired of their 
tramp through the dark dripping woods, and Stanley found it 
impracticable to carry the heavy sections of the "Lady Alice." 
It was resolved to take to the river and face its rapids and 
savage cannibal tribes, rather than continue the struggle through 
these thorny and gloomy shades. 

The river was soon reached and the "Lady Alice" launched. 
From this on, Stanley resolved to call the river the " Livingstone." 
He divided his party, so that part took to the boat, and part 
kept even pace on the land. The stream and the natives were 
not long in giving the adventurers a taste of their peculiarities. 
A dangerous rapid had to be shot. The natives swarmed out 
in their canoes. The passage of the river was like a running 
fight. 

On November 23, 1877, while the expedition was encamped on 
the banks of the river at the mouth of the Ruiki, thirty native 
canoes made a determined attack, which was only repulsed by 
force. On December 8, the expedition was again attacked by 
fourteen canoes, which had to be driven back with a volley. 
But the fiercest attack was toward the end of December, when 
a fleet of canoes containing 600 men bore down upon them with 
a fearful din of war-drums and horns, and the battle cry " Bo- 
bo, Bo-bo, bo-bo-o-o-oh!" Simultaneously with the canoe attack 
a terrible uproar broke out in the forest behind and a shower 
of arrows rained on Stanley and his followers. 

There were but two courses for the leader, either to fight 
the best he knew how in defense of his followers, or meet a 
surer death by surrender. The battle was a fierce one for half 
an hour, for Stanley's men fought with desperation. At length 
the canoes were beaten back, and thirty-six of them captured 
by an adroit ruse. This gave Stanley the advantage and 
brought the natives to terms. Peace was declared. 

Here the Arab traders declared they could go no further amid 
such a country. So they returned, leaving Stanley only his 
original followers, numbering 140. The year 1877 closed ic 



398 



THE CONGO. 



disaster No sooner had he embarked all his force in canoes, 
for the purpose of continuing his journey, than a storm upset 
some of them, drowning two men and occasioning the loss of 
guns and supplies. 

But the new year opened more auspiciously. It was a bright 
day and all were happily afloat on the broad bosom of the 
Lualaba, where safety lay in keeping in mid-stream, or darting 
to opposite shores when attacked. What a wealth of affluents 
the great river had and how its volume had been swelled! 
The Lomame had emptied through a mouth 600 yards wide. 
On the right the Luama had sent in its volume through 400 
yards of width, the Lira with 800 yards, the Urindi with 500 
yards, the Lowwa with 1200 yards, the Mbura with two 
branches of 200 yards each, and 200 miles further on, the 
Aruwimi, 2000 yards from shore to shore. 

The Lualaba (Livingstone) had now become 4000' yards wide 
and was flowing persistently northward. The equator has been 
reached and passed. Can it be that all these waters are the 
floods of the Nile and that Livingstone was right? There was 
little time for reflection. The natives were ever present and 
hostile, and the waters themselves were full of dangers. 

But we have ran ahead of our party. Just after the mouth 
of the Lomame was passed the expedition reached that series of 
cataracts, which have been named Stanley Falls. Their roar was 
heard long before the canoes reached them, and high above the 
din of waters were heard the war-shouts of the Mwana savages 
on both sides of the stream. Either a way must be fought 
through these dusky foes, or the cataract with its terrors must 
be faced. 

To dare the cataract was certain death. The canoes were 
brought to anchor, and a battle with the natives began. They 
were too strong, and Stanley retraced his course a little way, 
where he landed and encamped. Another trial, a fierce surge 
through the ranks armed with lances and poisoned arrows, gave 
them headway. The first cataract was rounded, and now they 
were in the midst of that wonderful series of waterfalls, where 
the Lualaba cuts its way for seventy miles through a range of 



J-OO THE CONGO. 

higli liills, with seven distinct cataracts, in a cliannel contracted 
to a third of its ordinary breadth, where the stream tumbles 
and boils, flinging itself over ledges of rock, or dashing frantically 
against the walls that hem it in, as if it were struggling with 
all its giant power to escape from its prison. Within the gorge 
the ear is stunned with the continual din of the rushing waters, 
and the attention kept constantly on the strain to avoid the 
perils of rock, rapid, whirlpool, and cataract with which the 
course is strewn. With extreme caution and good-luck the rapids 
may be run in safety; but how are frail canoes to survive the 
experiment of a plunge over a perpendicular ledge, in company 
with millions of tons of falling water, into an abyss of seething 
and gyrating foam ? 

Ashore, the cannibal natives lie in wait to oppose a landing, or 
better still, to slay or capture victims for their sport or larder. 
A toilsome ascent has to be made to the summit of the bluffs 
forming the river banks over rough boulders and through 
tangled forest. In places where the fall of the stream is slight 
it may be possible to lower down the boats, by means of strong 
hawsers of creepers, to the pool below; but in other cases the 
canoes have to be dragged painfully up the cliffs, and launched 
again with almost equal toil where the current seems a little 
calmer. All this while the poisoned arrows are hissing through 
the air, spears are launched out of every thicket, and stones are 
slung or thrown at the unlucky pioneers from each spot of 
vantage. Only by van and rear guards and flanking parties, and 
maintaining a brisk fire can the assailants be kept at bay. The 
vindictive foe are as incessant in their attacks by night as by 
day; and the whiz of the flying arrow, the hurtling of lances 
through the temporary stockade and the sharp crack of the 
rifle, mingle with the dreams of the sleeper. 

The descent of Stanley Falls was not made without loss of 
hfe and property. In spite of every precaution, canoes would 
be dragged from their moorings and be sucked down by the 
whirlpools or swept over the falls; or the occupants would lose 
nerve in the presence of danger, and allow their craft to drift 
into the powerful centre current, whence escape was hopeless. 



THE CONGO. 401 

During tlieir passage occurred one of tlie most thrilling scenes 
In all this long journey tlirougli the Dark Continent. The 
canoes were being floated down a long rapid. Six had passed 
in safety. The seventh, manned by Muscati, Uledi Muscati, and 
Zaidi, a chief, was overturned in a difficult piece of the water. 
Muscati and Uledi were rescued by the eighth canoe ; but Zaidi, 
clinging to the upturned canoe, was swept past, and seemed on 
the point of being hurled over the brink of the fall. The canoe 
was instantly split in two, one part being caught fast below the 
water, while the other protruded above the surface. To the 
upper part Zaidi clung, seated on the rock, his feet in the water. 
Below him leapt and roared the fall, about fifty yards in depth ; 
above him stretched fifty feet of, gradually sloping water. 

Mr. Stanley and a part of the expedition were at this time 
on the banks. JSTo more strange and perilous position than 
that of Zaidi can be imagined. A small canoe was lowered by 
means of a cable of ratans ; but the rope snapped and the canoe 
went over the falls. Poles tied to creepers were thrown toward 
him but they failed to reach. The rock was full fifty yards 
from the shore. Stanley ordered another canoe, fastened by 
cables, to be lowered. Only two men could be foimd to man it 
— Uledi, the coxwain of the " Lady Alice," and Marzouk, a boat 
boy. "Mamba Kwa Mungu," exclaimed Uledi, "My fate is in 
the hands of God," 

The two men took their places in the canoe and paddled 
across the stream. The cables which held the boat against the 
current were slackened, and it dropped to within twenty yards 
of the falls. A third cable was thrown from the boat toward 
Zaidi, but he failed to catch it till the sixth throw. Just as he 
grasped it the water caught him and carried him over the 
precipice. All thought him lost, but presently his head appeared, 
and he seemed still to have hold of the cable. Stanley ordered 
the canoemen to pull. They did so, but the upper cables of 
the canoe broke and it was carried toward the falls. Fortunately 
it caught on a rock, and Uledi and Marzouk were saved. They 
still had hold of the cable which Zaidi clung to. By dint of 
hard pulling they were enabled to save, for they dragged him 
26 




O 



THE CONGO. ' 403 

back up tlie falls to their own perilous position. There were 
three now on the rock instead of one. Twenty times a cable 
loaded with a stone was thrown to them before they caught it. 
They drew it taut and thus had frail communication with the 
shore. But it was now dark and nothing more could be done 
till light came. In the morning it was decided that the cable 
was strong enough to hold the men if they would but try to 
wade and swim to shore. Uledi dared it, and reached land in 
safety. The others followed, and terminated an anxious scene. 

Stanley was in the midst of these falls for twenty-two days 
and nights. On January 28, 1878, his peril and hardship ended 
by passing the last fall. By Feburary 8, Eubanga, a village of 
the ISTganza was reached, where he found friendly natives. And 
not a moment too soon, for his men were fainting for want of 
food. This was encouraging, but his heart was further rejoiced 
that the Lualaba had not only assumed its wide, placid flow, 
but had suddenly changed its northern direction to one almost 
westward toward the Atlantic. He was then not going toward the 
Nile. No, it was not a Nile water, but must be the Congo, What 
a rare discovery was then in store for him ! 

And the natives verified the thought. For the Eubanga chief, 
on being questioned, first mentioned the Congo. " Ikutu ya 
Kongo," said he, " that is the river's name." The words thrilled 
Stanley. The Lualaba had ceased to flow, the Congo had taken 
up its song and would witness the further adventures of the 
brave explorer. It was a mile and a half wide, with a magnifi- 
cent bosom. Green, fertile islands sprinkled its glassy surface. 
The party enjoyed needed rest, in this paradise, and then Feb- 
ruary 10, the boats pulled down stream again, the rowers bend- 
ing gleefully and hopefully to their arduous task. 

On the 14 the mouth of the Aruwimi was passed and they 
were in the Bangala country. Here they suffered from the most 
formidable attack yet made. It was the, thirty-first struggle 
through which the party had passed on the Lualaba, or Congo, 
or Livingstone, though the latter name now seems out of place 
since we know that all is Congo, clear to Bangweolo, on whose 
shores Livingstone perished. 



404 THE CONGO. 

The shores of both the Congo and Aruwimi resounded with 
the din of the everlasting war-drums, and from every cove and 
island swarmed a crowd of canoes, that began forming into line 
to intercept and attack the travellers. These crafts were larger 
than any that had yet been encountered. The leading canoe of 
the savages was of portentous length, with forty paddlers on 
each side, while on a platform at the bow were stationed ten 
redoubtable young warriors, with crimson plumes of the parrot 
stuck in their hair, and poising long spears. Eight steersmen 
were placed on the stern, with large paddles ornamented with 
balls of ivory; while a dozen others, apparently chiefs, rushed 
from end to end of the boat directing the attack. Fifty-two 
other vessels of scarcely smaller dimensions followed in its wake. 
From the bow of each waved a long mane of palm fibre ; every 
warrior was decorated with feathers and ornaments of ivory ; 
and the sound of a hundred horns carved out of elephants' tusks, 
and a song of challenge and defiance chanted from two thousand 
savage throats, added to the wild excitement of the scene. 
Their wild war-cry was " Yaha-ha-ha, ya Bengala." 

The assailants were put to flight after a series of charges 
more determined and prolonged than usual. This time, however, 
the blood of the strangers was fullj^ up. They were tired of 
standing everlastingly on the defensive, of finding all their 
advances repelled with scorn and hatred. They carried the war 
into the enemy's camp, and drove them out of their principal 
village into the forest. In the centre of the village was found a 
singular structure — a temple of ivory, the circular roof supported 
by thirty-three large tusks, and surmounting a hideous idol, four 
feet high, dyed a bright vermillion color, with black eyes, beard 
and hair. Ivory here was "abundant as fuel," and was found 
carved into armlets, balls, mallets, wedges, grain pestles, and other 
articles of ornament and use; while numerous other weapons 
and implements of iron, wood, hide, and earthenware attested 
the ingenuity of the people. Their cannibal propensities were as 
plainly shown in the rows of skulls that grinned from poles, 
and the bones and other grisly remains of human feasts scattered 
^bout the village streets. 



406 THE CONGO. 

They had now a peaceful river for a tii oe, ' >r rather they were 
enabled to float in its middle, or dodge fr( m shore to shore, 
without direct attack. But food became scjrce. On February 
20, they got a supply from natives whom th jy propitiated. On 
the 23, Amima, wife of the faithful Kaclieche died. Her last 
words to Stanley were, "Ah, master, I si lall never see the sea 
again. Your child Amima, is dying. I ha'vC wished to see the 
cocoa-nuts and the mangoes, but, no, Amima is dying, dying in 
a Pagan land. She will never see Zanzibar again. The master 
has been very good to his children, and Amima remembers it. It 
is a bad world master, and you have lost your way in it. 
Good bye, master, and do not forget poor little Amima." The 
simple pathos of this African girl sweetened a death-bed scene 
as much as a Christian's prayer could have done. 

For a distance of 1000 miles from Stanley Falls the river is' 
without cataracts, flowing placidly here, and there widening to 
ten miles, with numerous channels through reedy islands. Every 
thing was densely tropical — trees, flowers, plants, birds, animals. 
Crocodiles were especially plenty in the water, and all the large 
land animals of the equatorial regions could be seen at intervals. 
There were few adventures with these, for the party clung rigidly 
to their boats ; but once in a while, a coterie, organized for a 
hunting bout, would come back with such stirring tales of attack 
and escape as we are accustomed to read of in connection with 
the eastern coasts of the continent where hunting the elephant, 
rhinoceros, lion, hippopotamus, is more of a regular business, 
and where spicy stories of adventure are accepted without ques- 
tion. 

After a treacherous attack by the people of King Chumbiri 
— Stanley's thirty-second battle — the natives showed a more 
peaceable disposition. They had heard of western coast white 
men and knew something of their ways. So there was a 
pleasant flow of water and a safe shore, for many days. But 
now the river was about to change. It received the Ikelemba, 
a powerful stream of tea-colored water, 1000 yards wide. Its 
waters flowed along in the same bed, unmixed with those of 
the Congo, for 150 miles. This immense tributary and that of 



THE CONGO. 407 

the Ibari, were reported to come from great lakes, 800 miles 
to the south, and probably the same that Livingstone and 
Cameron both mention in their travels. 

' For 900 miles the Congo has had a fall of only 364 feet, or 
a third of a foot to the mile. We are now within 400 miles 
of tlie Atlantic, yet 1150 feet above it, and on the edge of the 
great table lands of Central Africa. The days of smooth sail- 
ing are at an end. The mountains come close to the stream, 
and the channel narrows. The white chalky cliffs remind 
Frank Pocock of the coasts of Dover in his own England. 
A roar is heard in advance. The cataracts have begun again, 
and they sound as ominously as the war-cry of the natives 
hundreds of miles back in the woods and jungles. 

We have now been over four months on this river, and the 
next two hundred miles are to be the most tedious, laborious 
and disastrous of all. The terrors of Stanley Falls are here 
duplicated a thousand times. Bluffs rise 1500 feet high. 
Between them the river rushes over piles of boulders, or shoots 
with frightful velocity past the bases of impending crags, np 
which one must quickly scramble or else be carried into the 
boiling whirlpools below. 

These falls we shall call the "Livingstone Falls." In their 
general features they are not like Niagara, or Yictoria on the 
Zambesi, but a succession of headlong rushes, as if the river 
were tearing down a gigantic rock stairway. 

Of the Great Ntamo Fall, Stanley says: "Take a strip of sea, 
blown over by a hurricane, four miles in length by half a mile 
in breadth, and a pretty accurate conception of its rushing waves 
may be obtained. Some of the troughs were one hundred 
yards in length, and from one to another the mad river plunged. 
There was first a rush down into the middle of an immense 
trough, and then, by sheer force, the enormous volume would 
lift itself upwards steeply until, gathering itself into a ridge, it 
suddenly hurled itself twenty or thirty feet straight upwards 
before rolling down into another trough. The roar was deafen- 
ing and tremendous. I can only compare it to the thunder of 
an express train through a rock tunnel." 



408 THE CONGO. 

In this vast current, rushing along at the rate of thirty miles 
an hour, the strongest steamer would be as helpless as a cockle- 
shell, and as for frail canoes, they had to be dragged from rock 
to rock, or taken clear from the water and borne by land around 
the obstructions. Frequently canoes were wrecked and then a 
halt had to be ordered till new ones were hewn from trees. 
Yet amid trial, sickness and sore distress they had to pause at 
times in wonder before the imposing sights that opened on them. 
One was that of the Edwin Arnold Kiver which flings itself 
with a single bound of 300 feet into the Congo, clearing the 
base of its cliff' by ten yards. Still more wonderful is the cas- 
cade of the Nkenke, which is a plunge of a 1000 feet; and 
near by another with a fall of 400 feet. 

Many gaps Avere made in the ranks of Stanley's companions 
through this "Valley of Shadow." In one day (March 28) he 
saw eleven of his men swept over a cataract and disappear in 
the boiling waters below. First a boat, in which was Kalulu, 
an attendant of Stanley in all his journeys, was sucked Within 
the power of a fall and plunged into the abyss. Hardly had 
the eye turned from this horror when another canoe was seen 
shooting down the stream toward what appeared to be certain 
death. ^ By almost a miracle it made an easy part of the cat- 
aract and the occupants succeeded in reaching the shore in 
safety. Close behind came a third with a single occupant. As 
the boat made its plunge the occupant rose and shouted a fare- 
well to his companions on the shore. Then boat and man 
disappeared. A few days afterwards he re-appeared like an appari- 
tion in camp. He had been tossed ashore far below and held 
a prisoner by the natives, who has picked him up more dead 
than alive. 

On April 12, the " Lady Ahce " herself, with her crew, came 
to the very verge of destruction. The boat was approaching a 
bay in which the camp for the night was to be made, when a 
noise hke distant thunder fell on the ears of the crew. The 
river rose before them into a hill of water. It was a whirlpool, 
at its full. All hands bent to their paddles and the boat was 
plunged into the hill of water before it broke. They thus 




THE LADY ALICE IN THE CONGO EAPIDS. (409) 



410 THE CONGO. 

escaped being sucked into a vortex whicli would have sunk tlie 
boat and drowned all. As it was, the boat was whirled round 
and round througli a succession of rapids, before the crew could 
bring her under control again. 

Fortunately the natives were still friendly and of superior type. 
They had many European manufactures, which pass from tribe 
to tribe in regular traffic, and enjoyed a higlier civilization than 
those of the Central African regions. Stanley rested with these 
people for several days while his carpenter made two new canoes. 

On June 3, he lost his servant, comrade and friend, last of 
the Europeans, the brave and faithful Frank Pocock. All the 
boats had been taken from the water and carried past the 
Massase Falls, except the canoe " Jason," in' which were Pocock, 
Uledi and eleven others. This had gotten behind on account 
of Frank's ulcerated feet. Chafing at the delay he urged Uledi 
to "shoot the falls," against the latter's judgment, and even 
taunted the crew with cov/ardice. 

"Boys," cried Uledi, addressing the crew, "our little master 
is saying that we are afraid of death. I know there is deatb 
in the cataract; but come, let us show him that black men 
fear death as little as white men." 

"A man can die but once!" "Who can contend with his 
fate?" "Our fate is in the hands of God," were the various 
replies of the men. 

"You are men," exclaimed Frank. 

The boat was headed for the falls. They were reached, and 
in another moment the canoe had plunged into the foaming 
rapid. Spun round like a top in the furious waters, the boat 
was whirled down to the foaming pit below. Then she was 
sucked below the surface and anon hurled up again with several 
men clinging to her, among them Uledi. Presently the form of 
the "little master" was seen floating on the surface. Uledi 
swani to him, siezed him, and both sunk. When the brave 
Uledi appeared again he was alone. Poor Pocock's tragic death 
was a blow to the whole expedition. Most of the party gave 
way to superstitious dread of the river and many deserted, but 
quickly returned, after a trial of the drearv woods. 



THE CONGO. 



411 



On June 23, the carpenter of the expedition was swept over 
the Zinga Falls, in the canoe, "Livingstone," and drowned. 




DEATH OF FRANK POCOCK. 



Stanley's food supply was frequently very short amid the difficul- 
ties of Livingstone Falls. Not that there was not plenty on the 



412 THE CONGO. 

sliores, but liis means of buying were exhausted, and such a 
thing as charity is not common to the African tribes. Even 
where most friendly, they are always on the lookout for a trade, 
and a bargain at that. It is a great hardship for them to give, 
without a consideration. 

The appearance of his attendants cut Mr. Stanley to the heart 
every day — so emaciated, gaunt, and sunken-eyed were they ; 
bent and crippled with weakness who had once been erect and 
full of manly vigor. And the leader's condition was no better. 
Gone now was all the keen ardor for discovery, the burning 
desire to penetrate where no white man had yet penetrated which 
animated his heart at the outset of his journey. Sickness that 
had drained his strength, anxietj^ that had strained to its utmost 
pitch the mind, sorrow for loss and bereavement that had wearied 
the spirit — these had left Mr. Stanley a very different man from 
that which he was when he set out full of hope and ardor from 
Zanzibar. All his endeavor now was to push on as fast as pos- 
sible, to reach the ocean with as little more of pain and death 
to his followers as possible. 

At last Stanley struck a number of intelligent tribes who gave 
much information about the rest of the river and the 
coast. There were three great falls still below them, and any 
number of dangerous rapids. It would be folly to risk them 
with their frail barks. Moreover, he learned that the town of 
Boma, on the Atlantic coast, could be reached by easy journeys 
across the country. His main problem, as to whether the Lual- 
aba and the Congo were the same, had long since been solved. 
He had been following the Congo all the time, had seen its 
splendid forests and mighty affluents, its dashing rapids and bewil- 
dering whirlpools and falls, had even, through the spectacles of 
Livingstone, seen its head waters in Lake Bangweolo, amid 
whose marshes the veteran explorer laid down his life. 

What need then to risk hfe further at this time, and in his 
very poor condition. He resolved to leave the river and make 
direct for the coast at Boma. When he assembled his followers 
to make this welcome announcement to them, they were over- 
come with joy. Poor Safeni, cox wain of the " Lady Alice," went 



THE CONGO. 413 

mad with rapture and fled into the forest. Three days were 
spent in searching for him, but he was never seen more. 

Eehnquishing his boat and all unnecessary equipage at the 
cataract of Isangila, the party struck for Boma, but only to 
give out entirely when still three days distant. A messenger 
was sent in advance for aid. He came back in two days with 
a strong band of carriers and abundance of food. The perishing 
party was thus saved, and was soon receiving the care of the 
good people of Boma. Here all forgot their toils and perils 
amid civilized comforts and the pardonable pride aroused by 
their achievements, Stanley's exploit is unparalleled in the 
history of African adventure. Though not the first to cross the 
Continent, he hewed an unknown way and every step was a 
startling revelation. He did more to unravel African mysteries 
and settle geographic problems than any other explorer. 

And, August 12, 1877, three years after his start from Zanzi- 
bar on the Indian Ocean, and eight months after setting out 
from Nyangwe to follow the Lualaba, he stood on the Atlantic 
shores at Boma and gazed on the mouth of the Congo, whose 
waters shot an unmixed current fifty miles out to sea. Though 
he had proved it to be so, he could still hardly believe that 
this vast flood pouring 2,000,000 cubic feet of water a second 
into the ocean, through a channel ten miles wide and 1300 feet 
deep, was the same that he had followed through wood and 
morass, rapid and cataract, rock bound channel and wide expanse, 
for so long a time, and that it was the same which Diego Cam 
discovered by its color and reedy track four hundred years 
before, while sailing the ocean out of sight of land. 

In the journey of 7200 miles, one hundred and fourteen of 
Stanley's original party had perished. Many had fallen in battle 
or by treachery, more were the victims of disease, and some 
had succumbed to toil or been "washed down by the gulfs." 
But a goodly remnant survived. These were returned, according 
to contract, to their Zanzibar home, Stanley went with them 
by steamer around the Cape of Good Hope, 

It needs not to tell the joy with which the people again 
beheld their home; how they leaped ashore from the boat; how 



4.14: THE CONGO. 

their friends rushed down to the beach to welcome back the 
wanderers; how wives and husbands, children and parents, 
"literally leaped into each other's arms," while "with weeping 
and with laughter" the wonderful storj of the long and terrible 
journey is told to the eager listeners. 

Stanley, having paid his followers in full, according to the 
terms of his contract, and rewarded some over and above their 
lawful claims, so that not a few of the men were able to pur- 
chase neat little houses and gardens with their savings, prepared 
to quit Zanzibar forever. 

The scene on the beach on the day of Stanley's departure 
was a strange and an affecting one. The people of the expedi- 
tion pressed eagerly around him, wrung his hand again and 
again, and finally, lifting him upon their shoulders, carried him 
through the surf to his boat. Then the men, headed by Uledi 
the cox-wain, manned a lighter and followed Mr. Stanley's 
boat to the steamer, and there bade their leader a last farewell. 

Stanley's own feelings at this moment were no less keen. 
As the steamer which bore him home left the shore of Zanzibar 
behind, his thoughts were busy with the past; he was living 
once again in retrospect the three strange, eventful years, during 
which these simple black people had followed him with a 
fidelity at once simple and noble, childlike and heroic. For 
him, his comrades in travel through the Dark Continent must 
ever remain heroes; for it was their obedient and loyal aid 
that had enabled him to bring his expedition to "a successful 
and noble issue, to accomplish each of the three tasks he had 
set himself to do, — the exploration of the great Victoria Nyanza 
Lake, the circumnavigation of Tanganyika, and the identification 
of Livingstone's Lualaba Eiver with the Congo. 

Ever since this memorable journey, Mr. Stanley has been 
enthusiastically working to found a great Congo free Govern- 
ment and commercial empire, which all the nations shall recog- 
nize and to which all shall contribute. He has projected a 
steamer system, of heavy draught vessels, from the mouth of 
the river to the first cataracts. Here a commercial emporium is 
to be founded. A railway is to start thence and lead to the 



THE CONGO. 415 

smooth waters above. This would open 7000 miles of naviga- 
ble waters on the Upper Congo and a trade of $50,000,000 a 
year. It would redeem one of the largest fertile tracts of land 
on the globe and bring peace, prosperity and civilization to mil- 
lions of human beings. Only climate seems to be against his 
plans, for it is undoubtedly hostile to Europeans. But if native 
energies can be enlisted sufficiently to make a permanent ground 
work for his ideal state, he may yet rank not only as the great- 
est of discoverers but as the foremost of statesmen and humani- 
tarians. The possibilities of the Congo region are boundless. 

A missionary j list returned from the Congo country thus writes 
of it: 

" The bounds of this ' Congo Free State ' are not yet defined, 
but they will ultimately embrace the main stream and its immense 
system of navigable tributaries, some of which are 800 miles long. 
The Congo itself waters a country more than 900 miles square, 
or an area of 1,000,000 square miles. These rivers make access 
to Equatorial Africa and to the Soudan country, quite easy. 

The resources of this fine region are exhaustless. The forests 
are dense and valuable. Their rubber wealth is untouched, and 
equal to the world's supply. Everywhere there is a vast amount 
of ivory, which lies unused or is turned into the commonest 
utensils by the natives. There are palms which yield oil, plan- 
tains, bananas, maize, tobacco, peanuts," yams, wild coffee, and 
soil equal to any in the world for fertility. Europeans must guard 
against the climate, but it is possible to get enured to it, with 
care. In the day-time the temperature averages 90° the year 
round, but the average of the night temperature is 70° to 75°. 
Eain falls frequently, and mostly in the night. The natives are 
hostile, only where they have suffered from invasion by Arab 
slave dealers. 

Already there are some 8000 white settlers in the heart of 
the Congo country — Portuguese, English, Belgians, Dutch, Scan- 
dinavians and Americans, and their influence is being felt for 
good. The completion of Stanley's railroad around the Congo 
rapids will give fresh impetus to civilization and lay the basis 
of permanent institutions in this great country." 



THE Ci|pE OF pTOI^M^. 

THE little Portuguese ship of Bartholomew Diaz was the first 
to round the "Cape of Storms" in 1486. When King 
John II. of Portugal, heard of his success he said it should 
thereafter be called Cape of Good Hope. The passage of this 
south ermost point of Africa meant a route to India, on which 
all hearts were set at the time. 

Nearly two hundred years later, in 1652., the Dutch settled at 
the Cape. They called the Quaique, or natives, Hottentots — 
from the repetition of one of the words used in their dances. 

The Colony became a favorite place for banished Huguenots 
from France and Peidmont. It grew, got to be strong, and at 
length tyranical. The more liberal members left it and pushed 
into the interior, where they drove back the Kaffirs, and 
redeemed much valuable territory. The parent Colony tried to 
force its government on these pioneers, who were called " Boers " 
— the Dutch word for "farmers." A rebellion ensued. The 
Prince of Orange asked England to help suppress it (1795). 
She did so, and with characteristic greed, kept it till 1803. It 
then passed to the Dutch, but was retaken by England in 1806. 

Settlement marched rapidly up the eastern coast of Africa, 
and a great agricultural section was opened. The Kaffir tribes 
protested and five fierce wars were fought, with the loss of all 
Kafiraria to the natives. The Boers were never reconciled to 
British authority. They murmured, rebelled, and kept migrating 
northward, till north of the Orange Kiver they founded the 
Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal Eepublic. 

The high promontory of Cape of Good Hope — Table Mountain 
— is visible a long distance from the sea, owing to the dry, 
light atmosphere. On its spurs are many ruins of block-houses, 
used by the early settlers. Over it, at times, hangs a veil of 
cloud, called the "Table Cloth," which, when dispersed by the 
sun, the inhabitants say is put away for future use. 
(416) 



THE CAPE OF STORMS. 417 

The town of Cape Colony, or Cape Town, is now perfectly 
modern, and very pretty. It was here that the great missionary 
Robert Moffat began his African career in 1816; here that 
Pringle started to found his ideal town Glen Lynden. 

In 1867 all Cape Colony was thrown into excitement by the 
discovery that diamond fields existed inland near the Kalihari 
Desert. There was a rush like that in our own country in 1849 
wdien gold was discovered in California. Exaggerated stories of 
finds of diamonds by natives, valued at $50,000 a piece, were 
eagerly listened to, and in a few weeks there was a population 
of 10,000 in a hitherto unknown region, with the road thither, 
for hundreds of miles, literally alive with wagons, oxen, pack 
mules and footmen. 

The diamond territory is Griqualand, on the headwaters «f 
the Orange and Yaal Rivers and close to the desert — partly in 
it. The region is 16,000 square miles in extent and 3000 feet 
above the ocean. In the diamond fields the diamonds are 
found in the sand by washing. This is the native method of 
getting them, and also that adopted by thousands of people 
who have no capital. 

But it was soon found that they could be had in " larger 
numbers and of greater size and purity by digging. This 
brought capital, machinery, and regular mining tracts, called 
" Claims." 

At first the mining towns were made up of tents, filled with 
a mixed people, toiling willingly all day, and dancing, gambling, 
drinking and rioting at night. At one time there Avere 60,000 
persons in these diamond fields, but now not more than 40,000. 

The Kimberley mine is the favorite. It has been excavated 
to a depth of 250 feet and has proved very rich. It is now 
surrounded by quite a town, and the people — mostly native dig- 
gers — are orderlj^ and industrious. The diggers delve with 
spade and pick in the deep recesses of the mine, and the sand, 
rock and earth are pulled to the surface in buckets, where they 
are sorted, seived, and closely examined for diamonds. 

Formerly the " claims " sold for fabulous prices. Many, only 
thirty by sixteen feet, brought $100,000. i^nd some rare finds 
27 



418 



THE CAPE OF STORMS. 



have been made. The great diamond, found a few years ago, 
and called the " Star of South Africa," was sold, before cutting, 
for $55,000. And while we are writing, one is undergoing the 
process of cutting in Paris which is a true wonder. It arrived 
from South Africa in August, 1884, and was purchased by a 
syndicate of London and Paris diamond merchants. It weighs 
in the rough 457 carats and will dress to 200 carats. The 




ZULUS. 



great Koh-i-noor, weighs only 106 carats, the Eegent of France 
136| carats, the Star of South Africa 125 carats, the Piggott 
82J carats, and the Great Mogul 279 carats. But the latter is 
a lumpy stone, and if dressed to proper proportions, would not 
weigh over 140 carats. 

The Kafi'raria country, lying between Cape Colony and ISTatal, 
i«* rich in beautiful scenerv and abounds in animal life. While 



THE CAPE OF STORMS. 419 

the larger animals, as the elephant and lion, have retreated inland, 
there are still many beasts of prey, and the forests have not 
given over their troops of chattering baboons. Its greatest 
scourge is periodical visits of immense flights of locusts, which, 
destroy all vegetation wherever they light. The natives make 
them into cakes and consider them a great delicacy. These 
natives are a brave, fine people, and have been conquered and held 
with difficulty. As they yield to civilization they make an 
industrious and attractive society. 

Natal was so named, in honor of our Saviour, more than 300 
years ago by Yasco de Gama. It was the centre of the Zulu tribes^ 
whom King Oharka formed into an all conquering arm}^, until 
the invasion of the country by the Boers. It became a British 
colony in 1843, and has been held with the greatest difficulty, 
for the Zulu warriors showed a bravery and method in their 
warfare which made them formidable enemies even against forces 
with superior arms and discipline. It was in the English wars 
with the Zulus that the Prince Imperial, of France, lost his life. 
A writer describes the Zulus "as a race of the most handsome 
and manly people found among savages ; tall, muscular, and of 
remarkable symmetry, beauty and strength. Their carriage is 
upright, and among the chiefs, majestic." 

The Drackenberg Mountains, many of whose peaks are 10,000 feet 
high, shut ofi' Natal from the Transvaal Republic. This Transvaal 
region was, as already seen, redeemed from the natives by the 
Boers, who are mostly devoted to farming, but many to a pas- 
toral life like that of the old patriarchs, living in wagons or tents 
and leading, or rather following, about immense herds of cattle 
and sheep. They are a hardy, strong, brave people, and in sub- 
duing them and annexing their beautiful and fertile country, it 
is very doubtful whether Great Britain has done herself credit 
or humanity benefit. Boers may not be all that modern civili- 
zation could desire. In their contact with the natives they may 
have retrograded to a certain extent. But it is very probable 
they have made larger and more beneficial conquests over nature 
than any other more highly endowed and uncompromising peo- 
ple could have done in the same length of time. There is hardly 



4:20 



THE CAPE OF STORMS. 



a product of the soil that does not grow in the Transvaal- 
corn, tobacco, apricots, figs, oranges, peaches— two and sometimes 
three crops a year. It is finely watered with noble mountain 
streams, and is rich in iron, tin, copper, lead, coal and gold. 
The capital, Pretoria, is the centre of a rich trade in ostrich 
feathers. 




MY CATTLE WERE SAVED. 



Ostrich farming is a large industry in these South African 
States. Farmers buy and sell these animals like cattle. They 
fence them in, stable them, tend them, grow crops for them, 
study their habits, and cat their precious feathers, all as a 



THE CAPE OF STOEMS. 



421 



matter of strict business. The animals begin to yield feathers 
at eight months old, and each year they grow more valuable. 
They are nipped or cut off, not plucked. The ostrich feather 
trade of South Africa is of the value of $1,000,000 a year. The 
birds are innocent and stupid looking, but can attack with great 
ferocity, and strike very powerfully with their feet. The only 
safe posture under attack by them is to lie down. They then 
can only trample on you. 




BUFFALO HUNTERS. 



The Transvaal region is a paradise for hunters. The elephant, 
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, springbok, 
gnu, lion, and indeed every African animal, finds a home amid 
its deep woody recesses and sparkling waters. As he entered its 
borders from the desert, Pinto's camp was attacked by two 
lions, who scented his desert pony and herd of cattle. The 



422 THE CAPE OF STORMS. 

natives became demoralized, and Pinto himself could do little 
toward saving his property on account of the darkness Fortu- 
nately he got his hand on a dark lantern, in which was a 
splendid calcium light. Placing this in the hand of a native, 
he ordered him to go as near to the growling intruders as was 
safe, Pinto following with a double barreled rifle. The glare of 
the light was then turned full in the faces of the beasts. They 
were dazed by it, and cowered for a moment. That moment 
was fatal. Pinto gave both a mortal wound and saved his 
cattle. And it was here that Cummings lost one of his guides, 
who was pounced upon by a lion as he lay asleep before a 
camp fire. Here also Lieutenant Moodie and his party got the 
ill-will of a herd of elephants, which charged upon them and 
gave furious chase, knocking the Lieutenant down and tramping 
him nearly to death. One of his companions was killed outright 
by the charging beasts and his body tossed angrily into the 
jungle with their tusks. 

But the finest sport is hunting the buffalo. He is stealthy, 
cunning and swift. It requires a long shot or a quick ingenious 
chase to bag him. He never knows when he is beaten and will 
continue to charge and fight thougii riddled with bullets or pierced 
with many lances. Gillmore was once intent on an elephant 
track when suddenly his party was charged by five buffaloes. 
His horse saved him by a tremendous leap to one side, but one 
of his attendants was tossed ten feet in the air, and another 
landed amid the branches of a tree, one of which he fortunately 
caught. 



flYA^^ALMD, 



THREATS of war between England and Portugal bring into 
prominence that portion of Central Africa wliicli is embraced 
in the title " Njassaland." Wliile ordinarily it might be 
embraced in the Zambesi system, it is a land (|uite by itself, 
especially as to its topography and the position it occupies in the 
commercial and political world, and is in many respects tlie most 
interesting part of East Central Africa. It is a back-ground to 
Portugal's Mozambique possessions, but at the same time the very 
heart of the British effort to cut a magnificent water way inland 
from the mouths of the Zambesi to the mouths of the Nile. Hence 
the conflict of interest there, a conflict which must go on by arbitra- 
tion or by war, till Great Britain secures what she wants — control 
of the Shir^ river and Lake Nyassa. The navigation of the Lower 
Zambesi is already open to all nations. 

The river Shir^, which we are now about to ascend, falls into^the 
Zambesi from the left, only some ninety miles from its mouth. 
Twenty years ago its course was unknown, and its banks were 
wilderaesses untrodden by the foot of a white man. Now tlie 
stream is one of the best-known and most frequented of the high- 
ways to the Lake Regions. The Shire is much narrower than the 
Zambesi, l)ut of deeper channel, and in the upper and lower portions 
more easily ascended by steamers. Midway in its course, however, 
we meet a great impediment to the navigation of the river, and 
consequently to the civilization and commercial development of the 
regions beyond. In thirty-five miles the stream descends twelve 
hundred feet in a series of rapids and cataracts over a rock- encum- 
bered bed and between sheer walls of cliff. 

Beauty and use are badly adjusted on the Shird. The scenery of 
the unnavigable portion of the river is fall of singular and romantic 

428 



424 NYASSALAND. 

beautj. In tlie picturesque diversity, of its cliarms of crag and 
forest and rushing water it is scai-cely equalled by any otlier part 
of Africa. Monotony, on the other hand, has set its stamp on the 
banks of the useful, slow-flowing river beneath and above. Yet 
the ascent of one hundred and fifty railes fi'oin the Zambesi to the 
cataracts is not without its attractions. The landscape is intensely 
and characteristically African. If the river is fringed on either 
shore by tall and sombre reeds, the majestic mountains that bound 
the Shire valley are always in sight. A dense tropical vegetation 
covers these hills to the very to[is, except that patches of lighter 
tint show wliere the hands of the natives have cleared the ground 
for the cultivation of crops of cotton, sorghum, or maize ; for these 
healthy uplands, above the reach of the mosquito and the deadly 
marsh fog, and safe also, in some degree, from the ravages of the 
kidnapper, are inhabited by an industrious race, the Manganjas, 
who have made no small progress in agriculture and native iron and 
metal manufactures. 

This whole country is favorable for the raising of cotton, which 
here grows a larger and finer staple, it is said, even than in Egypt, 
Every Manganja village has its cotton patch, where sufficient is 
grown for the use not only of the community but of neighboring 
tribes. The demand certainly is not large, the requirements of 
Africans in the matter of clothing being modest — or immodest, if 
you will Tliere is a tribe, for instance, on the Lower Zambesi, 
whose name, being interpreted, means the "Go-Nakeds." The full 
costume df a "Go-Naked "is a coat — of red ochre. Livingstone 
met one of their men of rank once, and found his court suit repre- 
sented by a few beads and a pipe two feet long. Unfortunately the 
Manganja, along with their ingenuity and industry as weavers, 
blacksmiths, and farmers, are inordinately fond of beer and smoking, 
and are great in the arts of brewing and tobacco-mannfiicturing. 
With all these disadvantages, however, it is pleasant to find, in one 
corner at least of Africa, a race with both tlie skill and the inclina- 
tion to work, and a native industry ready to spring up into large 
proportions so soon as it receives a little encouragement. 

After the Zambesi has been left behind, a great mountain called 
Morumbala, four thousand feet in height, bounds for many miles the 



NYASSALAND. 425 

view on the riglit as we ascend the Sliire. Beyond it we reach one 
of the marshes or old lake-beds which form one of the features of 
this valley. The bounding lines of hills make each a semicircular 
curve, and inclose a vast morass, through the centre of which the 
river drains slowly between dripping walls of sedge and mud. No 
human inhabitant can dwell in these impenetrable swamps ; but 
they are far from empty of life. Great flights of wild geese, ducks, 
waders, and other water-fowl abound here in prodigious numbei's, 
and rise from the brake at the noise of tlie passing boat or steamer 
— for already steamers now ply on the waters of the river below and 
the great lake above. 

The discovery of the lake was due to Livingstone who had heard 
of the "Great Water" somewhere to the north of the Zambesi and 
far amid the mountains of the Shire. His first attempt to reach it 
was a failure, through reticence of the people respecting it and the 
natural difficulties he encountered. But his worst enemy was his 
guide who misled him until all were completely lost. The party 
were in a desperate strait. Suspicion of treachery filled every bosom 
except Livingstone's. One of his faithful Makololos came up to 
him, and remarked, in a matter-of-fact way, "That fellow is taking 
us into mischief. My spear is sharp. There is no one here. Shall 
I cast him into the long grass ? " A gesture of assent, or even 
silence, and tlie unlucky guide would have been run through the 
body; but Livingstone was not the man to permit blood to be spilt, 
even on an apparently well-grounded suspicion of treachery. After 
all, it turned out to be merely a blunder, and no treachery. The 
party were led safely to the margin of the " great lake " of the dis- 
trict — the elephant marsh that they had passed some time before 
while ascending the river! 

The second trip resulted in a discovery of an inland sea, though 
not the one they were in search of. Climbing over the shoulder of 
the high, mountains east of the Sliire, the party came in sight of 
Lake Shirwa, lying in an isolated, pear-shaped basin, nearly two 
thousand feet above sea-level. Magnificent mountain scenery sur- 
rounds the lake, the waters of which, contrary to the rule in Central 
Africa, are salt, or rather brackish. Although the area of Shirwa 
is large, it is but a mill-pond compared with Nyassa and some of 



426 NYASSALAND. 

the other African lakes. Yet, girt in though it is with hills, it 
shows to one standing near its southern end a boundless sea-horizon 
towards the north. Opposite on the eastern shore a lofty range 
rises to a height of eigiit thousand feet above sea-level, while 
behind, the table-topped Mount Zomba, only one thousand feet 
lower, dominates the Shire valley. 

All this mountainous mass seems habitable, and, in fact, is inhab- 
ited to its very summits; and its temperate climate, healthful 
breezes, and freedom from malaria and mosquitoes, have led to its 
being chosen as the site of the Church of Scotland mission to tlie 
Nyassa country — their station, Blantyre, being named after the 
Scottish village where Livingstone first saw the light. 

Ill ascending to the Nyassa, the opposite or western side of the 
Shire is generally chosen, and travellers prefer to make a wide 
detour into the healthy Manganja uplands to struggling through the 
rocky, broken, and wooded country through which the river tears 
its impetuous way. It is dehghtful to breatlie the bracing air of 
these high plains after escaping from the humid, stifling atmosphere 
of the valley. The change of scenery and climate puts a new life 
into the veins of the traveller. Many novel views of African life 
come under his notice among the Manganja highlands. The path 
up the long ascent is toilsome, but the eye is cheered by the glorious 
views of the deep valley lying below and the blue domes and peaks 
that rise ahead. The country is open and park-like, full of grand 
forest trees and flowing streams. 

In the evening we halt at a Manganja village and receive a 
hearty — perhaps an uproarious — welcome. The villages are sur- 
rounded by thick-set hedges of the poisonous euphorbia; and how- 
ever busy at work or at feasting the inhabitants are inside, a guard 
is always kept on vigilant watch at the entrance, to give warning 
if a foraging band' of Mazitu heave in sight in the mountains, or the 
white robes of a party of Arab slave-hunters are seen ascending the 
valley. "When it is known that it is friends who are approaching, 
the villagers are not long in making amends for the shyness of their 
first greetings. Mats of reeds and bamboo are spread for the way- 
farers under the shade of the banian tree at the " boalo," an open 
space for the public entertainment of strangers at one end of tho 



428 NTAS3ALANt). 

village, the favorite spot for lounging and smoking, and where on 
moonlight nightrf the young people indulge in singing and dancing 
and their elders in hard drinking boats. The whole community 
troop out to see the white visitors, who are regarded with just such 
a mixture of curiosity and fear as a company of Ked Indians would 
be looked upon by English rustics. Presents are exchanged with 
the chief, and then a brisk trade sets in, the villagers bartering food 
and articles of native manufacture for beads, looking-glasses, cloth, 
and other surprising products of Eui'ope. Generally there follow 
dancing, pombe-drinking, and serenading in honor of the visitor, a 
homage which the latter is often glad to escape from by strolling 
out for a night-hunt for elephant or other game, or to note down by" 
the clear light of the moon his observations for the day. 

Soon it is time to descend into the "valley, where the Shir^ is 
found again flowing deep and slow, as below the falls, and opening 
up into a marshy lakelet, Pamalombe, with a strong family resem- 
blance to the swamps of the lower river. It ought to be recorded, 
in justice to African honest}'', that when the Ilala, the first steamer 
that floated on the Nyassa, was conveyed in pieces from the Lower 
to the Upper Shire by a band of some hundreds of porters, under 
Captain Young's leadership, it was found, on putting the little craft 
together, that not a single bolt or screw had been mislaid or stolen, 
though the temptation to fling away or decamp with their burdens 
must have sorely tried the carriers. 

Even when almost Avithin sight of the Nvassa, Livingstone could 
hear notliing of the goal of wliich he was in search. The chief of 
the "Great Lake" village on the Shire told him that the river 
stretched on for " two months' journey," and then emerged from 
two rocks that towered perpendicularly to the skies. " We shall 
go and see these wonderful rocks," said the doctor. " And when 
you see them," objected his Makololo companions, "you will just 
want to see something else." Next day they continued their march, 
and before noon came in sight of the lake. 

Like the Tanganyika and Albei-t Lakes, Nyassa is a long and 
comparatively narrow body of water lying in a deep depression of 
the plateau of Central Africa. From the outlet of the Shire one 
can sail on its waters for more than three hundred miles towards 



NYASS ALAND. 429 

the equator ; but it is nowhere more than sixty miles in width, and 
in some places less tlian half that distance across. It resembles the 
more northerly lakes, the Albert ISTyanza aad the Tanganyika, but 
especially the latter, in its geueral shape and direction ; and it was 
for many years a favorite theory with "closet geographers" that 
the three lakes formed one continuous sheet of water. Such an 
attenuated "river-sea," fifteen hundred miles in length and with no 
breadth to speak of, would have been a new thing in nature, and 
would, besides, have beeu an extremely useful factor in opening up 
Africa. Unfortunately, like other pretty theories, it did not stand 
the test of actual examination ; and we have seen that the three 
lakes form parts of three different though not disconnected systems. 

Tlie shores of Nyassa seem to be overhung on all sides by tall 
mountains, although near the southern end there is generally a 
margin of more level country between the bases of the hills and the 
lake. As we proceed northwards, the distinctive features of tlie 
lake shores become more pronounced and majestic. The strip of 
plain narrows until it disap[)ears. The range increases in altitude 
and approaches nearer, the rocky buttresses spring directly from 
the watei', and the torrents that rush down their sides plunge in 
cascades into the lake; and the extreme northern end is encircled 
by dark mountains, whose frowning tops are ten thousand feet or 
more above sea-level. But when we ascend from the sweltering 
western margin of the lake to the cool and breezy heights that look 
down on it, we find that instead of being on the summit of a range 
of mountains we are only on the edge of a wide table-land. There 
is no steep slope corresponding to that wiiich we have ascended so 
toilsomely, only a gentle incline towards the Zambesi. 

On his last great expedition to Africa, Dr. Livingstone passed 
round the southern end of the • lake, and, ascending the table- 
land, traced the water-shed between the lake and the streams flow- 
ing to the westward, until he descended into the valley of the 
Chambesi, and began that investigation of the Congo which is 
hereafter more fully described. The contour of the country reminded 
him strongly of that of Southern India. There was the flat country 
covered with thick jungle and tiger-grass, succeeded by dense 
forest, gradually thinning away to clumps of evergreens as the 



430 NYASSALAND, 

hiulier levels are readied, the scattered masses of boulders, the 
de'eply-trenched "nullahs" or water-courses, and all the other 
familiar features of the fine scenery of the Ghauts, while the table- 
land above resembled closely the high plains of the Deccan. But 
what a contrast in the social and industrial condition of the two 
countries ! Instead of seeing at every step, as in India, the traces of 
a long-founded civilization and a race of industrious tillers of the 
soil dwelling in peace and security under the strong arm of the law, 
we meet only with anarchy, misery, and barbarism. 

Tlie whole of this region is a hunting-ground of the Mazitu or 
Mavitu Zulus, whose only business is war and pillage. The 
wretched inhabitants of these hills dwell in constant apprehension 
of their raids. On no night can they sleep even within the shelter 
of their well-guarded stockades with the assurance that the Mavitu 
will not be upon them ere morning. Originally weak in numbers, 
this tribe has gathered strength by amalgamating with themselves 
the clans they have conquered. The terror which their deeds have 
inspired has been heightened by their wild and fantastic dress and 
gestures as they advance to battle, and by their formidable weapons. 
They carry the long Zulu shield and both the flinging and the stab- 
bing assegai. Their hair is plumed with feathers, and their bodies 
painted in fiendish devices with red and white claj^. So abject is 
the fear entertained for these redoubtable champions among the 
surrounding tribes, that the mere mention of their name is enough 
to make a travelling party take to their heels. Livingstone found 
this a constant source of annoyance and delay. Twice it was the 
cause of reports of his death being brought home. On the last 
occasion, the Johanna men — natives of the Comoro Isles — who 
formed his escort, were seized with the infectious panic, and, aban- 
doning him in a body, brought down to the coast the story of the 
explorer having been murdered in the interior. The falsity of their 
report was only ascertained after Mr. Edward Young had made a 
special expedition to the Nyassa, and learned on the spot that the 
intrepid missionary, in spite of the cowardly desertion of his follow- 
ers, was safe and well, and still pushing forward towards his goal. 

In one respect, if in no other, the Zulu " Eob Hoys " of these hills 
have a feeling in common with the travellers and missionaries who 



NYASSALAND. 431 

have found their way to the JNTyassa countries — tbej are the invet- 
erate enemies of the slave-hunters, and will not permit these gentry 
to practice the arts of kidnapping and murder within r^ach of their 
spears. The eastern side of the JSTyassa basin, on the other hand, is 
one of tlie principal scenes of the slave-traders' operations. In con- 
j unction with predatory negro tribes, such as the Ajawa on the left 
baidv of the Shire, they have made a wilderness of all the country 
between the Nyassa and the Indian Ocean. Nothing can exceed 
the waste and havoc they have wrought in this beautiful and fruit- 
ful land. Tlie books of the explorers are full of details of almost 
incredible atrocities committed under their eyes, and which they 
were powerless to prevent. Whole populations have been swept 
into tlie slave-gangs and hurried down to the coast, leaving the 
country behind them a desert, and their path marked by the skele- 
tons of those wlio have succumbed to exhaustion or the cruelty of 
their brutal drivers. The miserable remnant of the population roost 
in trees, or seek shelter in the deepest recesses of the forests ; while 
the jungle overruns the fields of maize, cotton, manioc, and sorghum 
and the charred ruins of their villages. 

In Livingstone's Journals we come upon such entries as: 
"Passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body; a group, 
looking on, said an Arab had done it that morning in anger at losing 
the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk." 
" Found a number of slaves with slave-sticks (logs six feet long, 
with a cleft at one end in which the head of the unfortunate is 
fastened) abandoned by their master from want of food ; they were 
too weak to speak or say where they had come from." "It was 
wearisome to see the skulls and bones scattered about everywhere ; 
one would fain not notice them, but they are so striking as one 
trudges along the sultry path that it cannot be avoided." This 
evidence is abundantly supported by the statements of other 
observers. Consul Elton describes passing a caravan of three hun- 
dred slaves from the Nyassa, while travelling through the clove 
and gum -copal forests on the Mozambique coast. " All," he says, 
" were in wretched condition. One gang of lads and women, 
chained together with iron neck-rings, was in a horrible state, their 
lower extremities coated with dry mud and torn with thorns, the'r 



432 NYASSAI;AND. 

bodies mere frameworks, and their skeleton limbs sligLtly stretched 
over with parcbment-like skin. One wretched woinau Lad been 
flung against a tree lor slipping her rope, and came screaming to us 
for protection, with one eye half out, and her face and bosom strenm- 
ino- with blood. We w^ashed her wounds, and that was the only 
piece of interference on our part with the caravan, althongh tie 
temptation was strong to cast all adrift, and give them at any rate 
a chance of starving to death peaceably in the woods." Can it be 
wondered at that the pioneers of civilization and Christianity in 
these regions have sometimes been carried away by their feelings, 
and at the risk of ruining their whole plans have forcibly interfered 
between these Arab miscreants and their victims? 

During the period to which Consul Elton's accounts apply, it was 
computed that the Lake Nyassa region supplied some fifteen thou- 
sand slaves annually to the markets of Kilwa and other coast towns. 
Dr. Livingstone is convinced, from his own observations, that, so 
far as regards the Shire country, not a tenth of those who are 
captured survive the horrors of the land journey. It may be 
wondered how this waste of human life can go on and the country 
not to be completely depopulated. In spite, however, of their 
terrible losses, there is still a large population settled on the Nyassa. 
They have been chased down from the hills by the Mavitu and the 
slavers, and are huddled together on the lake margin, where their 
enemies can swoop down and make them an eas_y prey. 

This dense population is, how^ever, only found towards the south- 
ern end of Nyassa. Further north, the Mavitu have taken posses- 
sion of the shore as well as the hills, and practise with equal suc- 
cess the vocation of pirates on the water and of robbers on land. 
An expedition in this direction was, till lately, certain to be attended 
with no small excitement and danger. If the journey were made 
hj land, the travellers were liable to be surprised at some point 
where the road was more rocky and difficult than usual, by the 
apparition of a wild-looking crew starting up from behind boulder 
or tree, and advancing with brandished spears and unearthly yells. 
White explorers are not accustomed to turn and flee at the first 
alarm. They stand, quietly awaiting the attack ; and the Mavitu, 
disconcerted at conduct so utterly unlike what they had calculated 




^1 . 



'IT 











\]hA \n 






iiM j;^ 




I , ' ...1. . 



'I I ''Ml 
*' I I I ' 1 ' ' 



434 NYASSALAND. 

upon, run away themselves instead. If the excursion is made by 
water, a crowd of boats, pall„etl by swift rowers, will perhaps be seen 
putting out from a secluded bight, or from behind a wooded pro- 
montory, and giving chase to the strangers, with loud outcries to 
stop. The navigators of this inland sea, however, are missionaries* 
merchants and men of peace. They have no desire to do harm to 
their savage pursuers, and, secure in the speed of their little steamer 
and the superior range of their guns, they can aftbrd to laugh at the 
attempts to capture them. 

Much more serious is the danger arising from the sudden and 
furious storms that sweep down upon the lake from the gullies of its 
encircling hills. Livingstone narrowly escaped shipwreck on its 
waters, and from his experiences of it proposed to have Nyassa 
named the "Luke of Storms." An old seaman of his party, who 
had been over the world, and at home had spent many a squally 
night off the wild coasts of Connaught and Donegal, said he had 
never encountered such waves as were raised in a i'ew minutes by 
the tornadoes on thelSTyassa. Succeeding voyagers — Young, Elton, 
Cotterill, Drs. Laws and Stewart, of the Scottish missions — ^report 
similar experiences. Mr. Cotterill's little craft, the Herya, a present 
from the Harrow boys, was driven ashore on the western coast, 
June 1877, and he lost his journals, goods, nnd medical stores, snv- 
ing only one bottle of quinine, which, remembering the fate of 
Livingstone and Mackenzie, he threw ashore as he neared the 
breakers in the dnrkness. The most dreaded waves on the Nyassa 
come rolling on in threes, " with their crests,"' says Livingstone, 
"streaming in spray behind them." A short lull follows each 
charge; and then another white-maned trio come rushing on and 
threaten to ingulf the voyagers and their frail bark. 

A curious natural phenomenon has been noticed by most 
observers on the Nyassa. A light blue cloud will be observed 
floating for many miles over the surface of the lake, like the trail- 
ing smoke of some distant fire. When it is reached, we discover 
that it consists of nothing else but myriads of insects, of a species 
peculiar to the region, and known as the " kungo fly." So dense is 
the mass that immense quantities of them are caught by the natives 
and pounded into cakes, resembling in size and shape a " Tam o' 



NYASSALAND. 435 

Slianter" bonnet. Thej are not particular as to what they eat, 
these hunger-bitten natives of the Nyassa shores. Neither are they 
unreasonably extravagant in the matter of dress, some of the tribes 
absolutely dispensing with clothes. Their notion of making up for 
their scanty attire by liberally anointing their bodies with rancid fish 
oil and hippopotamus fat, and smearing themselves with fancy designs 
•ill red and white clay, does not recommend them to the European 
eye and nostril. From oar point of view, too, their attempts at 
decoration by means of tattooing are in nowise improvements, the 
result being to give their faces and limbs the appearance of being 
thickly studded with pimples. The most hideous device of all, 
however, is the " pelele," or lip ring, an ornament without which 
no Nyassa belle would dream of appearing in public. This con- 
sists of a broad ring of tin or stone, an inch or more in diameter, 
inserted by slow degrees into the upper lip, causing it to stand out 
at right angles to its natural direction, and revealing beneath the 
rows of teeth sharpened to fine points like those of a saw. The 
native ladies of rank sometimes have a corresponding ring in the 
under lip, with the result that while the wearers of the single 
" pelele " can only lisp, the ladies of fashion are scarcely able to 
speak at all. Considering tliat these poor people have not been 
lavishly endowed with natural charms, the effect of their duck-like 
mouths may be imagined. Some handsome faces may, however, 
be seen among the natives of the Nyassa, and many of them, it has 
been observed, have regular Jewish or Assyrian features. Dr. 
Livingstone saw one man who bore a striking resemblance to a dis- 
tinguished London actor in the part of the " Moor of Venice," while 
another was the exact counterpart, in black, of the late Lord 
Clyde. 

The magnificent alpine country at the north end of the lake is, as 
yet, comparatively unknown. The sole spot where there is any 
level ground is a great elephant marsh. Here Elton and his com- 
panions counted no fewer than three hundred of these noble animals 
standing knee-deep in the swamp, the elders lazily swinging their 
trunks and fanning themselves with their huge ears; while the 
juniors of the herd disported themselves in their elephantine way. 



436 NYASSALAND. 

rollino- luxuriously in the mud, or tearing down brandies of trees in 
the riotous enjoyment of their enormous strength. 

Elton's party enjoyed several days of most exciting elephant- 
stalliing in the neighboring hills. Sallying out one morning into a 
part of the forest where the great brutes were known to abound, the 
herd was at length sighted; two or three of the elephants dozing 
under the shade of some trees, others engaged in munching 
branches, or shaking the boughs and picking up one by one with 
their trunks the berries that were scattered below. They were soon 
aroused from this delightful Elysium of rest and enjoyment by the 
hunters, who had crept up to within ten or fifteen yards unseen. 
Singling out the biggest elephant, a huge tusker, who stood blink- 
ing contemplatively under the shadow of a tree, Elton and his com- 
panion, Mr. Eliodes, each planted a bullet behind his shoulder. He 
trumpeted, staggered foward, tripped over into the rocky bed of a 
" nullah," scrambled out on the other side, and there receiving other 
two shots, crashed down lifeless into a second dry water-course. 

Chase was then given up a mountain gorge to the next largest 
elephant which deliberately charged back at Elton, the nearest of 
her pursuers. Allowing her to approach to within about three 
yards, he gave her a forehead shot, which turned her round ; and 
then Khodes " doubled her over like a rabbit." The retreating 
herd were pursued to the top of the pass, where the last of the line, 
a big bull elephant, receiving, a shot, stumbled and fell, while 
Elton, with "the pace on," nearly fell on the top of him ; "and," 
he saj^R, " holding my Henry rifle like a pistol, I shot him again at 
the root of the tail. The shock was irresistible ; over the edge of 
the ravine he went, head foremost, the blood gushing out of his 
trunk, and his fall into space only broken by a stout acacia, in 
which he hung suspended, his fore and hind legs on either side — 
dead." Still the hunt was continued, and on a second rocky slope 
a wounded elephant was found laboring up, supported and helped 
on by a friend on either side, while a fourth urged him on from 
behind with his forehead. This last faced round, and stood defi- 
antly at bay, his ears " spread-eagled." Elton's last cartridge 
missed fire; Rhodes shot; a tremendous report followed; the ele- 
phant, with a groan, plunged over a cliff, and hung suspended by a 



438 KYASSALAND. 

thorn-tree in micl-air, like his predecessor; while Mr. Rhodes, cast- 
ing his gun from him, ran down the declivity to the river, his face 
streaming with blood; and the survivors of the herd, toiling pain- 
fully up the mountain-side, disappeared over the sky-line, "utter- 
ing loud grumblings of disapprobation and distress." The cham- 
ber of the rifle had burst, cutting Mr. Rhodes severely in the face ; 
and his companion endeavored to console him by telling him that 
many a man at home would have given one thousand pounds for 
such a day's sport, and suffered the cut in the forehead into the 
bargain. 

Such sport is, however, getting every day more difficult to 
obtain ; for this lordly animal, the true " king of beasts," is retreat- 
ing before the march of civilization, and becoming gradually moi'e 
scarce even in the African solitudes. This is not to be wondeied 
at, considering the vast numbers — probably from fifteen tliousand 
to twenty thousand — that are killed annually for the sake of their 
ivory. 

It may be remarked that Elton's escape from the elephant's 
charge was a remarkably close one. There is only one other 
instance known of the "forehead shot" being effectual in stopping 
tlie course of an African elephant. This adventure happened in 
the Abyssinian highlands to Sir Samuel Baker. Tliat mighty 
hunter was at the time new to African sport, and imagining that 
planting a bullet in the forehead, the favorite metliod with hunters 
of the wild elephant of India and Ceylon, would be equally effec- 
tual in the case of his big-eared kinsman of Central Africa, he 
awaited the charge of an elephant until she was within five yards 
of the muzzle of his rifle. The bullet happened to strike a vulner- 
able spot in tlie skull, and dropped the animal dead; but the look- 
ers-on for several moments regarded the hunter as a dead man. 

In both these cases the elephant shot was a female, which pos- 
sesses in a less marked degree than the male the solid structure of 
skull that, along with their immense ears, convex foreheads, and 
greater size, distinguish the African from the Asiatic variety. 
When not struck in a vital s[)ot, the elephant is remarkably tena- 
cious of life ; and Livingstone tells how he fired twelve bullets into 
one that had fallen into a hole, and had about a hundred native 



NYASSALAND. 439 

spears sticking in him, and next morning found that the animal 
had scrambled out and escaped into the forest. Perhaps the most 
perilous experience that ever befell a white hunter when after ele- 
phants occurred to Mr. Osvvell, iar to tlie southward, on the bard^s 
of the Zouga. Chasing an elephant through a thorny thicket on 
horseback, he suddenly found the animal had wheeled round and 
was bearing straight down upon him. Attempting to turn his 
horse, he was thrown, face downwards, before the elephant. Twist- 
ing round, he saw the huge fore foot about to descend on his legs, 
parted them, and drew in his breath, expecting the other foot to be 
planted on his body; but saw the whole of the "under-side" of 
the huge creature pass over him, and rc^se unhurt to his feet, saved 
almost by miracle. ' 

But this has carried us far away from the elephant marsh, from 
the borders of which Messrs. Elton, Cotterill, Ehodes, and Hoste 
made their nscent of the mountain barrier of Nyassa. The lowest 
pass over the Konde, or Livingstone range, is eight thousand eight 
hundred feet above sea-level ; and the ascent embraces every var- 
iety of climate and scenery, from stifling tropical swamp to breezy 
moorlands of fern and bracken, car[)eted with wild thyme, daisies, 
dandelions, and buttercups, like our hills at home. From the top 
a magnificent landscape is viewed. Elton says : " The country we 
have passed through is without exception the finest tract in Africa 
1 have yet seen. Towards the east we were walled in with moun- 
tains rising to a height of from twelve to fourteen thousand feet, 
inclosing undulating, well-watered valleys, lovely woodland slopes, 
hedged-in fields, and knolls dotted with native hamlets. There is 
nothing to equal it either in fertility or in grazing land in Natal, 
the reputed ' garden of South Africa.' It is the most exceptionally 
favorable country for semi-tropical cultivation I have ever seen." 

A serious obstacle to the development of this beautiful highland 
region is probably the exceptionally deadly climate of the country 
through which it must be approached. Already many precious 
lives have been sacrificed in the attempt to open up the Nyassa. 
Livingstone got here his "death-sentence." The German Eoscher, 
who, travelling in the guise of an Arab from the east coast, viewed 
the lake only two months later than the great missionary, wag 



440 NYASSALAND. 

basely murdered at a little village near its shores. Bishop Mack- 
enzie is buried in the Shire swamps; and. near him lie nearly the 
whole staff of the University Mission to this region, all stricken 
down with marsh fever, Thornton, the intrepid companion of 
Livingstone on his first visit to the Nyassa, after having ascended 
half-way up the snow-capped mountain Kilimandjffro, far to the 
northward, returned to this quarter, only to die at the foot of the 
Murchison Eapids. Mrs. Livingstone, the devoted wife of the mis- 
sionary, rests under a gigantic baobab tree a little way below the 
Shirt^ mouth ; and near her grave is that of Kirkpatrick, of tlie 
Zambesi Survey Expedition of 1826. Another baobab, in Ugogo, 
shades the resting-place of Consul Elton, whom we have just seen 
full of life and hope, at the head of the pass overhanging the north 
end of the lake. Only a few marches to the northward of the pass, 
while toiling across a droughty plain, and weak from hunger and 
fever, he succumbed to sunstroke, and a most useful and promising 
career closed at the early age of thirty-seven. Still younger was 
Mr. Keith Johnston, who died from dysentery, while leading an 
expedition from Zanzibar territory to JSTyassa. Dr. Black is buried 
on Cape Maclear, the rocky promontory cleaving the southern end 
of the lake, whei'e the Free Church of Scotland Mission Station of 
Livingstonia has been j)lanted ; and the little cemetery contains 
many other graves of white persons. 

The Scottish mission stations on the Shir6 and Lake ISTyassa are 
not the only outposts which Christianity has planted in the far 
interior of the "Dark Continent." Similar colonies, for the moral 
improvement and industrial training of the natives of Africa, have 
been placed on the shores of the Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika 
by the London and University Missionary Societies. The example 
is being followed by similar associations in France and America; 
and the Zambesi country has been mapped out for a renewal of the 
long-abandoned work of the Jesuit fathers. Science, commerce, 
and philanthropy have enlisted by the side of religion in the task 
of opening up Africa. Tlie chief outlets of the slave-trade have at 
length, it is hoi)ed, been closed, thanks mainly to the efforts of 
Enoland, and the hearty co-operation of the government of Portu- 
gal, Egypt and Zanzibar. 



mG\n ^f.w\Gi^. 



THOUGH the coasts of Africa lie witliin sight of the most civil- 
ized countries, its deptlis are still mysteries. Though the valley 
of the Nile was, in the earliest ages of history, the seat of com- 
merce, the arts and sciences, it is only now that we read of a new 
source for that sacred stream in LaJse Edward Nyanza. 

This wonderfid continent, the ISTegroland of our school books, the 
marvel of modern times as the light of exploration pierces its forests 
and reveals its lakes, rivers and peoples, is a vast peninsula, 
triangular in shape, containing 12,300,000 square miles. This vast 
area renders a conception of its geographic details difficult, yet by 
taking several plain views of it, the whole may be brought out so 
that one can grasp it with a fair degree of intelligence. One way 
to look at it is to regard the entire seacoast as the rind of the real 
Africa. Follow its Mediterranean boundary on the north, its 
Red Sea and Indian Ocean boundary on the east, its Atlantic Ocean 
boundary on the south and west, and the lowland rind is always 
present, in some places quite thin, in others many miles thick. 

This rind, low, swampy, reedy, channeled by oozy creeks, or many 
mouthed rivers, is the prelude to something wholly different within. 
On the north, north-east and north-west, we know it introduces 
us to the barren Sahara. In all other parts it introduces us to an 
upland Africa, which, for height and variety of plateaus, has no equal 
in the world. These plateaus are variegated witli immense moun- 
tain chains, like those of the Atlas, the Moon, the Kong, the Gup- 
ata, and those just revealed by Stanley extending between the two 
great lakes Albert Nyanza and Yictoria Nyanza, and to a height of 
18,000 feet, fully 6,000 of which are clad in perpetual snow, even 

(441) 



442 AFRICAN RESOURCES- 

though Ijing under the Equator. Here too are those vast stretches 
of water which vie in size and depth with the lake systems of any 
other continent, and which feed mighty rivers, even though evapo- 
ration be constantly lifting their volume into the tropical air. No 
traveler has ever looked with other than awe upon those superb 
lakes Albert Nyanza, Edward Nyanza, Yictoria Nyanza, Tangan- 
yika, Leopold II., Nyassa, Bangweola, and dozens of smaller ones 
whose presence came upon him like a revelation. And then out of 
these jDlateaus, thousands of feet high, run all those mighty rivers 
which constitute the most unique and mightiest water system in the 
world— the Zambezi, the Congo, the Niger, the Senegal and the 
Nile. 

This would be Africa in a general sense. But in view of the 
importance of this opening continent, we must get a fuller view of 
it. The Africa of antiquity and of the Middle Ages extended from 
the Eed Sea to the Atlantic and from the Mediterranean to the land 
of the Berbers, and other strange, if not mythical peoples. It 
embraced Egypt, Nubia and Abyssinia on the east. On the north 
it was skirted by the Barbary States. But its great, appalling 
feature was the great desert of Sahara, forbidden to Greek or Eoman, 
Persian or Egyptian, till the Arab came on his camel, and with the 
flaming sword of Mohammed in hand, to pierce its waste places and 
make traffic possible amid its sandy wastes. 

South of the Western Sahara is a fairly defined section extending 
from Timbuctoo to the Gulf of Guinea, or in other words nearly 
to the Equator. It is divided by the Kong chain of mountains, and 
embraces the water systems of the Senegal and Niger Rivers. This 
was the part of Africa which first drew Em-opean enterprise after 
Portugal and Spain became the world's sailors, and began to feel 
their way toward the Cape of Good Hope. Three hundred years 
ago it was what Central Africa is to-day, a wonderland full of ven- 
turesome travelers, a source of national jealousy, a factor in Euro- 
pean politics, a starting point for a thousand theories respecting 
colonization and of as many enterprises having for their object the 
introduction of commerce, the arts and Christianity among the 
natives, who were by no means as peaceably inclined as in the pres- 
ent day. As other natives came to find out somethino- of the com- 



AFRICAN" RESOURCES. 443 

mercial value of the Senegal and Niger countries, they stepped in to 
get their share of the honor and profit of possession, and so this part 
of Africa was partitioned, till we find on the Atlantic, south of the 
Niger, the British colony of Sierra Leone, the kingdoms of Ashantee 
and Dahomey, the republic of Liberia, the coast towns of the Bight 
of Benin, and the strong French possessions lying just north of the 
Congo and extending indefinitely inland. 

Back of this section, and extending south of the Sahara, to the 
head- waters of the Nile, is the great central basin whose waters 
converge in the vast estuary known as Lake Tchad. It may be 
somewhat vaguely termed the Soudan region, which is divided into 
Northern and Equatorial Soudan, the former being the seat of the 
recent uprising of the Mahdi, and the latter the center of the king- 
dom which Emin Pasha .sought to wrest from Mohammedan grasp. 
Along the Indian Ocean coast, from Cape Guardafui to Mozambique, 
is a lowland stretch from two to three hundred miles wide, watered 
by small, sluggish rivers which find their way into the Indian Sea. 

Passing down the eastern side of the continent, we come to the 
immense basin of the Zambezi, second only in extent to that of the 
Congo, stretching almost to the Atlantic coast, seat of mighty tribes 
like the Macololos, teeming with commercial possibilities, and even 
now a source of such envy between England and Portugal as to 
raise a question of war. South of the Zambezi comes the great 
Kalahari desert as a balance to the northern Sahara, and then that 
fringe of civilization embraced in Transvaal, the Orange Free State, 
Cape Colony, and so around till the Portuguese kingdoms of Ben- 
guela and Angola are reached, all of whose waters run by short 
courses to the sea. These great natural divisions comiDrise the entire 
area of the African continent except that vast equatorial basin 
drained by the Congo. 

This mighty region, the Central Africa of to-day, is now largely 
embraced in the new Congo Free State. To the south of the mouth of 
the Congo is the State of Angola, and to the north, the State ot 
Congo, claimed by the French. The great river was originally called 
the Zaire, and by some the Livingstone. Its first, or ocean, section 
extends from Banana Point to Boma, a distance of 70 miles, and is 
in fact an arm of the sea. Thence, upward to Yivi, a distance of 40 



444 AFEICAN EESOUECES. 

miles, there is a deep, broad channel, with a moderate current. Vivi 
is the head of the lower river navigation, being at the foot of the 
cataracts, which extend for over 200 miles through a system of 
canons, with more than fifty falls of various heights. They are 
known as Livingstone Falls, and have stretches of navigable water 
between them, i^fter the cataracts are passed, Stanley Pool is 
reached, where are the towns of Leopoldville, Kinshassa and others, 
founded recently as trading or missionary stations. The vertical 
descent of the river from the broad, tranquil expanse of Stanley Pool 
to the level at Vivi, is about 1,000 feet, and from thence to the sea fully 
250 feet more. Stanley Pool, or basin, is about 20 miles long and 
nearly 10 broad, and is filled with low wooded islands, natural homes 
for hippopotami, crocodiles, elephants, and all tropical animals. 
From Leopoldville to Stanley Falls there is uninterrupted naviga- 
tion, and the distance is 1,068 miles, with a comparatively straight 
course and a vertical descent of four inches to the mile. Stanley 
Falls 1,511 feet above the sea level. The affluents of the river below 
Stanley Falls present a navigable surface estimated at 4,000 miles. 
In the wide and elevated portion of the river above Stanley Falls it 
is known as the Lualaba. Its course is now nearly north, and it was 
this fact that deceived Livingstone into the belief that he was on the 
Nile. This portion, though abounding in vast lake stretches and 
rich in affluents, is navigable only for shallow craft. It drains a 
fertile country whose centre is Nyangwe, the best known market 
town of Central Africa and the capital of Tippoo Tib's dominions, 
the conqueror of the Manyuema, and the craftiest of all the Arab 
potentates in Central Africa. 

To the east of the Upper Congo, or Lualaba, is a magnificent 
stretch of grass country, extending to Lake Tanganyika, whose wa- 
ters flow into the Congo, making a descent of 1,200 feet in 200 miles. 
As the western shores of that lake rise fully 2,500 feet, this region 
becomes a sort or Switzerland in tropical Africa. North and east of 
Tanganyika, are the Nile sources, in Lakes Albert, Edward and 
Victoria Nyanza— a fertile and populous region, fitted by_ nature for 
her thriftiest and best peoples. Thus we have Africa again mapped, 
and her grandest portion embraced in the Congo State, with its 
1,500,000 square miles, its countless population, its abundance of 



446 



AFKICAN RESOURCES. 



navigable streams, its remarkably fertile soil, its boundless forests, 
all its requisites for the demands of an advanced civilization. 

To the naturalist Africa opens a field for researcli equalled by no 
other continent. The whole organic world offers no such num- 
ber of giant animal and plant forms. It unfolds five times as many 
quadrupeds as Asia, and three times as many as the Americas. Its 
colossal hippopotami, huge giraffes, infinite variety of antelopes, 
and water-bucks, the curious diving sheep, or goat, called the Qui- 
chobo, long armed apes, fierce sokos, and swarms of sprightly mon- 
keys, excel those of Asia in size. That mammoth bird, the ostrich, 
whose feathers delight our modern slaves of fashion, is exclusively 
indigenous to Africa. The Arab may have brought the camel from 




AFRICAN ANT-EATER. 

the deserts of Sinai, but Africa has made a home for it. Africa is 
the habitat of the rhinoceros, elephant, lion, panther, leopard, ounce, 
jackal, hyena, wolf, fox, dog, cat, bat, rat, hare, rabbit, bear, horse, 
ass, zebra, sheep, with wool and without, goat, buffalo, gazelle, cat- 
tle of all kinds, some of them the finest specimens in nature, deer of 
the fallow type, which put to shame the sleek breeds of European 
parks. 

The birds are equally numberless as to variety. There are 
eagles, hawks, flamingoes, kingfishers, many varieties of parrots, 
peacocks, partridges, pheasants, widow and cardinal birds, weavers, 
cuckoos, doves, pigeons, ducks, geese, and crown-birds, the plumage 
of the last being the most beautiful of the feathered tribe. The 



448 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 



reptilia embraces crocodiles, tlie p.ytliou, the boa and hundreds of 
smaller saakes, some harmless and some highly venomous. The 
rivers and lakes swarm with fish, though the variety is not so great 
as in more northern waters. The forests and the earth swarm with 
termites and ants of great variety, which draw after them a host of 
ant-eaters of the armadillo type ; and at times spiders, caterpillars. 




THE "devil of the ROAD" AND OTHER AFRICAN" WASPS, WITH 
CATERPILLAR NESTS. 

and armies of locusts infest the trees or darken the sun. Insect life 
knows no limit in Africa — some the most beautiful, some the most 
horrid. The tsetse fly is no less a torment to cattle than the "devil 
of the road" is to the woe-begone traveler. And everywhere, espe- 
oially in tropical Africa, vegetation has a force and vigor peculiar to 




IbA 



450 AFRICAN" RESOURCES. 

that continent. Nature seems to rejoice in unfolding her strength 
through the seeds deposited in the soil. "Some fift}'- and some an 
hundred fold" is the law of increase, when the least care is given to 
planting and cultivation. Maize produces two crops a year. Tree 
life is gigantic, and the variety of wood infinite. Of the picturesque 
trees, the boaljab, or monkey bread-fruit tree, whose crown of green 
sometimes forms a circle of over 100 feet, takes a front rank, followed 
by the ceiba, with its stem of 60 feet and its rich crown of foliage 
extending fully 60 feet further. 

All of torrid Africa revels in plants and fruits of the most nutri- 
tious and medicinal quality, suited to the wants and well-being of 
the people. There is both food and medicine in the fruits of the 
palm, banana, orange, shaddock, pine-apple, tamarind, and the leaves 
and juice of the boabab. The butter- tree gives not only butter, but 
a fine medicine. The ground-nut yields in six weeks from the 
planting. The natives produce for eating, wheat, corn, rice, barley, 
millet, yams, lotus berries, gum, dates, figs, sugar, and various spices, 
and for drink, coffee, palm-wine, cocoanut milk and Cape ^dne, ISTo 
less than five kinds of pepper are known, and the best indigo is pro- 
duced, along with other valuable dyes. Cotton, hemp and flax are 
raised for clothing. 

It has always been a fiction that Africa contained more gold than 
any other continent. The "gold coast" was a temptation to ven- 
turesome pioneers for a long time. Precisely how rich in minerals 
the "dark continent" is, remains to be proved. But it is known 
that iron abounds in many places, that saltpetre and emery exist in 
paying quantities, that amber is found on the coasts, and that dia- 
monds are plenty in the Kimberly region. That the continent is 
rich in useful minerals may be taken for granted, but as these 
things are not perceptible to the naked eye, time must bring the 
proof. 

Various estimates have been put upon the population of Afriea. 
Stanley estimated the population of the Congo basin at 50,000,000. 
The Barbary States we know are very populous. Africa has in all 
probability contributed twenty-five millions of slaves to other coun- 
tries within two-hundred and fifty years without apparent diminu- 
tion of her own population. 



AFRICAN EESOURCES, 451 

So she must be not only very populous but very prolific. It 
would be safe to estimate her people at 200,000,000, counting the 
Ethiopic or true African race, and the Caucasian types, which 
embrace the Nubians, Abyssinians, Copts and Arabs. The Arabs 
are not aborigines, yet have forced themselves, with their religion, 
into all of Northern and Central Africa, and their language is the 
leading one wherever they have obtained a foot-hold. The Berber 
and Shelluh tongues are u^ed in the Barbary States. The Mandingo 
speech is heard from the Senegal to the Joliba. On the south- 
western coast there is a mixture of Portuguese. Among the true 
natives the languages spoken are as numerous as the tribes them- 
selves. In the Sahara alone there are no less than forty-three dia- 
lects. Mr. Guinness, of London, president of the English Baptist 
Missionary Society operating in Africa, says there are 600 languages 
spoken in Africa, belonging principally to the great Soudanese 
group. 

Of the human element in Africa, we present the summary given 
by Eev. Geo. L. Taylor. He says : — " Who and what are the races 
occupying our New Africa? The almost universally accepted 
anthropology of modern science puts Japheth (the Aryans), Shem 
(the Semites), and Ham (the Hamites), together as the Caucaeian 
race or variety (not species) of mankind ; and makes the Ugrians, 
the Mongols, the Malays and the Negroes (and some authorities 
make other divisions also) each another separate variety of the one 
common species and genus homo, man. 

" Leaving the radical school of anthropology out of the question, it 
cannot be denied that the vast preponderance of conservative 
scientific opinion is, at least, to this effect, namely : While the 
Berbers (including the Twareks, Copts and Tibbus) are Hamitic, 
but differentiated toward the Semitic stock, the true Negroes are 
also probably Hamitic, but profoundly differentiated in the direc- 
tion of some other undetermined factor, and the Ethiopions or Abys- 
sinians are an intermedi-ate link between the Caucasian Hamite and 
the non-Caucasian Negro, with also a prehistoric Semite mixture 
from southern Arabia. Barth, whose work is a mine of learning on 
the Soudan, concededly the best authority extant on the subject, 
says that wliile the original population of the Soudan was Negro, 



452 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 



as wns all tlic sontlicrii edge of the Salinra, nevertheless the Negro 
hns heon crowded southward along the whole line by the Moor (a 
inixl, Aral)) in the west, by Ihe Berber (including both Twareks and 
Tibhiis) in the eentre, and by the Arab in the east. Tinibuetoo ia 
aeity of Berber, not oi'Negro origin, founded belbre the Norman eon- 
quest oC l^lngland, since conquered by Moors, a.nd now ruled by the 
Fulbe, t)j- l<\dlatali, who are neither Moor, Berber, Arab, nor Negro, 










NA'l'lVK. TYPKS IN SOUTHERN SOUDAN. 



bnt a distinct race between the Arab and Berber on the one side 
and the Negro stock on the other, and whose language and phys- 
iognomy, and only semi-woolly hair, arc more Mongoloid or KafTir 
than Negro; but who are the most intelligent, energetic and rai)idly 
becoming the most powerful people in the Soudan, and whose influ- 
ence is now felt from Senegambi a to Bagliirmi, through half a dozen 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 453 

native states. In all tlio Niger basin only tlio Mandingo and tlie 
Tonibo countries about the liead of tlie Joliba, or Niger, are now 
ruled by pure Negro dynasties, the former being a spleiidid and 
eapiibie jet-black people, probably the tinoHt purely Negro race yet 
known to h]urf>peans. In the central Soudan the Kanuri of'Kanern 
and Bornu came to Kancrn as a conquering Tibbu-Berber stock 
over 500 years ago, and are now Negroid, l^artlier east Tibl^u and 
Arab are tlie ruling elements. Ilaussa, Sokoto and A'lamawa are 
now Keliatah States. The southward pressure of Moor, Twarek, 
Tibbu and Arab is still going on; and the Fulbe, in the midst of 
the native states, is ra[;idly [jf;notrating them, .subverting the few 
native Negro dynasties still existing, and creating a new and rising 
race and power that is, at any rate, not Negro. ''J'hus ancient 
Nigritia is ra]>idly ceasing to be " Negroland," the races being more 
and more rnixt, and newer and ruling elements of Moor, Berber and 
Arab constantly flowing in. This is the testimony of a long line of 
scholars from Barth down to Prof. A. II. Keane, author of the 
learned article on "Soudan," in the Encyclopedia BrUannica. 

"The people commonly considered Negro, in Africa, consist 
mainly of three great stocks— the Nigritians of the Soudan, the 
great Banta stock reaching from the southern bounds of the Soudan 
to the southern rim of the Zambesi basin, and the great Zulu stock. 
All these differ widely from each other in physiology, languages, 
arts and customs. The Nigritians are declining under Arab and 
Berber pressure; the Zulus, a powerful and semi -Negro race, are 
rapidly extending their conquests northward beyond the Zambesi 
into east central Africa. The Bantus are mainly agriculturists. 
They fill the Congo basin, and extend eastward to the Indian Ocean, 
between Uganda (which is Bantu) and Unyanyemb<^. They have 
only recently been discovered, and are not yet much studied by 
Europeans. 

" But not all so-called Negroes are true Negroes. As for the 
eastern highland regions of the two Niles, and tlience southward 
from the Abyssinians and the Shillooks at Khartoum i<> the iiari of 
Gondokoro and the Waganda of Uganda — the Niarn-Niam of Mon- 
buttoo, the Manyuerna of the Lualaba, and the Makololo on the 
Zambesi — the ruling and paramount native tribes are Negroid, but 



iiapiiiiip^ 




AFRICAN RESOURCES. 455 

not Negro, unless onr ordinary conception of tbe Negro is a good 
deal revised. As Livingstone says of tlie Makololo, so of all these, 
they are a " coffee -and -mi Ik color ; " or we may say all these peoples 
are from a dark coffee-brown to brownish-white, like coffee, depend- 
ing on the amount of milk added. They are mostly tall, straiglit, 
leanish, wiry, active, of rather regular features, fair agriculturists 
and cattle-raisers, with much mechanical capacity, born merchants 
and traders, and almost everywhere hold darker and more truly 
negro tribes in slavery to themselves, where any such tribes exist. 
Where they have none or few domestic animals for meat, they arc 
frequently cannibals. In the middle Congo basin the tribes are 
more truly Negro, and here the true Negroes are freemen, inde- 
pendent and capable, though in a somewhat low state of develop- 
ment. But, so far as now known, the true Negro, in an indepen- 
dent condition, holds and rules but a comparative!}'- small part of 
Africa. As to capability for improvement these peoples — the 
Negroid races at least and probably the Negroes — are as apt and 
civilizable as any Caucasian or Mongolian people have originally 
been, if we consider how their geographical and climatic isolatiou 
has hitherto cut them off" from the rest of the world and the world 
from them. We know that if Ave leave Revelation out of the 
account, all Caucasian civilization, whether Aryan, Semitic, or 
Hamitic, can be traced backward till, just on the dawn of history, 
it narrows down to small clans or families, with whom the light 
began and from whom it spread. We know the same, also, as to 
the non-Caucasian Chinese and Nahua civilizations of Asia and 
America. Had the spread of the germs of these civilizations been 
prevented by conditions like those in Africa, who shall say that the 
stage of development might not be about the same to-day ? There 
seems to be but one uncivilizable race — if, indeed, they are such — 
in Africa ; and that is the dwarfs. The Akka, found by Schwein- 
furth south of the Welle, called themselves " Betua," the same 
word as the "Batua" on the Kassai. The dwarfs of the upper 
Zambesi call themselves by a similar word, and so with the Bush- 
men in South Africa. Many things go to prove that these dwarf 
nations are all one race, the diminutive remnants of a primeval 
stock of one of the lowest types of man, who have never risen above 



^56 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

the liunter stage of life. They have been scattered, and alniost 
exterminated, by the incoming of the powerful Bantu stock, that is 
now spread from the Soudan to Zululand. These dwarfs are the 
best living examples of similar races once scattered over Europe 
and Asia, whose real existence lies at the bottom of all the lore of 
fairies, brownies, elfs, gnomes, etc. They constitute one of the most 
pregnant subjects of study in all anthropology. They are seemingly 
always uncivilizable." 

In his " Africa in a Nutshell," Kev. Geo. Thompson thus sketches 
the country, especially the central belt : — 

" The Central Belt of Africa— say from 15° north to 15° south of 
the equator, about 2,000 miles in width— is, heavily-timbered, of 
the jungle nature. There are numerous large trees (one to six 
feet through, and 50 to 150 feet high) with smaller ones, and bushes 
intermingled, while vines of various kinds intertwine, from bottom 
to top, making progress through them, except in paths, very diffi- 
cult. Only experience can give a realizing idea of an African 
forest — of the tangle, and the density of its shade. 

" While traveling through them, even in the dry season, when the 
sun shines brightest, one cannot see or feel the warming rays. The 
leaves drip with the dews of the night, and the traveler becomes 
chilled, and suffers exceedingly. 

"But the whole country is not now covered with such forests. 
They are found in places, from ten to twenty-five miles in extent, 
where the population is sparse, but the larger portion of the country 
has been cleared off and cultivated ; and, while much of it is in 
crops all the time, other large patches are covered with bushes, of 
from one to three years' growth — for they clear off a new place 
every yenr. The farm of this year is left to grow up to bushes two 
or three years, to kill out the grass, and then it is cleared off again. 
Thus, in thickly settled portions of the country, but little large 
timber is found, except along rivers, or on mountains. Such is the 
country north of the Gulf of Guinea, to near the Desert. 

"The people are numerous, and the cities larger (the largest cities 
in Africa ; they are from one to six miles through), and much of 
the country is under cultivation. And so of the central portion of 
Africa, in the vicinity of Lake Tchad. 



458 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

" But in that portion of Africa lying 500 miles south and north of 
the Equator, and from the Atlantic Coast, 1,000 miles eastward, 
the jungle and heavy forests are the most extensive, and towns 
farther between, and not so large. 

" This is the home of the gorilla, which grows from five to six feet 
high, of powerful build, and with arms that can stretch from seven 
to nine feet; a formidable enemy to meet. It is also the home of 
that wonderfully varied and gigantic animal life — elephants, lions, 
leopards, zebras, giraffes, rhinoceri, hippopotami, crocodile etc., which 
distinguishes African Zoology from that of every other continent. 

"This central belt of Africa is capable of sustaining a vast popu- 
lation. It can be generally cultivated, and its resources are wonder- 
ful. The soil is productive. The seasons are favorable, and crops 
can be kept growing the year through. 

" Eice, of three or four kinds and of excellent quality, Indian corn, 
three kinds of sweet potatoes, beans, peanuts, melons, squashes, 
tomatoes, ginger, pepper, arrowroot, coffee, sugar cane, yams, cocoa, 
casada, and other grains and vegetables, besides all tropical fruits, 
are cultivated. 

"The coffee is a wild forest tree, growing seventy-five feet high 
and eighteen inches through. It is also cultivated largely in Liberia. 
Many of the people have from 100 to 1,000 acres of coffee trees. 

'* The Liberian coffee is of such superior quality and productive- 
ness, that millions of plants have been sent to Java and old coffee 
countries, for seed. Its fame is already world-wide. The wild coffee 
is as good as any, but the bean is smaller. And new settlements 
soon become self-supporting by the culture of coffee. Sugar cane 
is also raised, and much sugar is made in this colony. Many steam 
sugar mills are in operation on St. Paul's River and at other places. 
" On the Gulf of Guinea the people are quite generally raising cot- 
ton and shipping it to England. Hundreds of cotton presses and 
gins have been bought, and ujed by them, and Africa will yet be 
the greatest cotton, coffee and sugar country in the world. All 
nations can be supplied therefrom. 

"Cotton is cultivated, in small quantities, in widely-extended por- 
tions of Africa, and manufactured into cloth which is very durable. 
They also make leather of a superior quality. 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 459 

" Gold, copper, coal, the richest iron ore in the world, and other valu- 
able metals are abundant ; from them the natives manufacture their 
tools, ornaments and many things of interest. Ivory, hides, gums, 
rubber, etc., are abundant.* It is said that 50,000 elephants are 
killed yearly, for their ivory, in Africa. 

" The country only needs development ; and the many exploring 
parties from Europe, who are penetrating every part, seeking trade, 
will aid in opening its boundless treasures. Gold-mining companies 
are operating on the Gulf of Guinea, with paying results. 

" And the natives secure and sell to the merchants large amounts 
of gold, in form of rough, large rings. They make fine gold orna- 
ments, and wear vast quantities. 

" This trade with Interior Africa, so eagerly sought, will soon lead 
to railroads, in different directions — from Liberia to the Niger, and 
across to Zanzibar from South Africa ; and in other directions. The 
work is begun, and will not stop. 

"The French and the English are planning for railroads in differ- 
ent directions. ' The former are building one from Senegal to 
Timbuctoo. 

" The nations of Europe are, to-day, in a strife to secure the best 
locations for trade with this rich country. And soon there will be 
no more ' unexplored regions.' 

" The coasts on the west and east are generally low and unhealthy. 
But the interior is higher, and will be more suited to the white man. 
" It is, in the main, an elevated table-land, from 1,000 to 6,000 feet 
above the sea, variegated with peaks and mountains, from 3,000 to 
20,0.00 feet high, snow-capped, and with valleys and broad plains, 
hot springs, and salt pans, and innumerable springs, inlets and 
streams. 

" In some regions, for a distance often to twenty miles, there is a 
scarcity of water in the dry season. Other places are flat plains, 
which are overflowed in the rainy season, so they cannot be inhabi- 
ted or cultivated, except in the dry season. And such localities 
are unhealthy. 

" But by far the greater part of the country is capable of being 
inhabited and cultivated — with an abundance of timber of many 
kinds, suitable for all the purposes of civihzation, for boats, houses, 



460 AFRICAN EESQURCES. 

wagons, furniture and implements — but all different from anything 
in America. Some kinds are equal to fine mahogany. 

"This central portion of Africa is blessed with numerous large 
lakes, three large rivers, and man}^ smaller. 

" The Niger rises 200 miles back of Liberia, runs northeasterly, to 
near Timbuctoo, then southward to the Gulf of Guinea. It is 
already navigated for hundreds of miles by English steamers. 

" In fourteen years the exports have increased from $150,000 to 
$10,000,000 ; trading factories from two to fifty-seven ; and steamers 
from two to twenty, and other boats. 

" The Binue is a large branch coming in from the eastward. 
"And the Congo, rising nearly 15° south of the equator, runs 
through various lakes, making a northward course for more than 
1,000 miles, to 2|° north of the equator, then bends westward and 
southwesterly to the Atlantic; being from one to sixteen miles 
wide, and very deep ; filled with inhabited islands and abounding 
in magnificent scenery. The banks along the rapids rise from 100 
to 1,200 feet high. It freshens the ocean for six miles from land, 
and its course can be seen in the ocean for thirty-six miles. 

" There are two series of rapids in it — a great obstacle to naviga- 
tion — but the desire for trade will overcome these. 

" The first series of rapids commences about 100 miles from the 
sea, and extends some 200 miles in falls and cascades — with 
smoother stretches between — to Stanley Pool. There are thirty- 
two of these falls. From thence is a broad, magnificent river, with 
no obstruction for nearly 1,000 miles, to the next series of rapids at 
Stanley Falls. From this, again, is another long stretch of naviga- 
ble river. It pours nearly five times the amount of water of the 
Mississippi. 

"Between Lake Bangweola and Stanley Pool, the Congo falls 
2,491 feet; between the pool and ocean, 1,147 feet, making 3,638 
feet in all. 

" The Nile falls over 1,200 feet between Victoria and Albert Lakes, 
and 2,200 from Albert to the sea. 

" Most of the rivers which rise in the interior of Africa have heavy 
fall. 

"Then there are numerous large rivers emptying into the Congo, 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 461 

on each side, which can be ascended far into the interior. Those on 
the north can be easily connected with tlie head waters of the 
Gaboon Eiver, and those on the sontli with tlie head waters of the 
Zambesi, emptying into the Indian Ocean ; and on the east, with 
Lake Tanganyika. 

" It will be seen that the Congo River will be of vast importance 
in the development of Africa. A railroad will soon be built around 
the falls, to connect with the steamers above. 

"The soil of Upper Congo is very rich, the forests are exceedingly 
valuable, the climate quite favorable, and the people numerous and 
kind. 

" A few years ago the trade of the Congo was only a few thousand 
dollars yearly. It is now, so soon, from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 
a year. Trading houses and steamers are multiplying. 

*' The Congo Valley contains over 5,000 miles of navigable river 
,and lake. Tlie nations can be supplied from this region with cot- 
ton, coffee, sugar, gum copal, ivory, rubber, valuable dyes, iron, 
gold, copper, and many other things — when it shall be civilized and 
a market formed. 

" Many are running to and fro, and knowledge is being rapidly 
increased in those parts. 

"Then there are the rivers Senegal, Gambia (navigable for 200 
miles), Sierra Leone, Calabar, etc. 

"The lakes are numerous, from the size of Lake Michigan, or 
larger, to those covering only a few square miles. 

"Lake Tchad, in the centre of the continent, is nearly the size of 
Lake Michigan, with marshy surroundings, from which as yet no 
outlet has been discovered, though the Tshaddi, or River Binu6, 
may be found to be the outlet of this lake. 

" In Central East Africa is a lake system of vast extent. Victoria 
Nyanza is about 250 miles long, surrounded mostly with hills and 
mountains, from 300 to 6,000 feet high. It contains many islands, 
and numerous large rivers empty into it. It is nearly 4,000 feet 
above the sea, and, with its rivers, constitutes the principal and most 
southern source of the Nile. The equator crosses its northern end. 
It is nearly as large as Lake Superior. 

"West of this, about 200 miles, is the Albert Nyauza, 400 miles 



462 AFIUCAN EESOURCES. 

long, and 2.720 feet above the level of the sea. This receives the 
outlet of the Victoria; and from this the Nile bursts forth, a large 
river, and runs its course of nearly 3,000 miles to the Mediterranean 

Sea. 

" Albert is nearly three times as large as Lake Erie. 

" South and west of these two lakes are numerous smaller ones — 
some of them very beautiful— all emptying into the Victoria 
Nyanza, or " Big Water." 

" South of these, and separated by a mountain ridge, is Lake 
Tanganyika, 380 miles long and very deep, from twelve to forty 
miles wide, surrounded by mountains 2,000 to 5,000 feet high. It 
is 2,756 feet above the sea. Till about 1875 it was an internal sea, 
receiving large rivers, but having no outlet, as proven by Stanley, 
who circumnavigated it on purpose to settle this point. But near 
midway, on the west, was a low place, where the bank was oidy 
three feet above the water. And here, after steadily rising for ages, 
it broke over, and cut a channel to the Congo, into which it now 
empties, in a deep, rapid stream. 

" West and south of this is a series of lakes, connected with the 
great Congo Eiver. The most southerly, in latitude 13° or 11°, is 
Bangweola, about 175 miles long and sixty wide. (Dr. Livingstone^ 
in his last journey, crossed this from the north and died in the marsh 
on its southern border. May 4, 1873.) This empties into Lake 
Moero, nearly 3,000 feet above the sea. 

" North and west of this are a number of other lakes, all emptying 
into and swelling the mighty Congo. 

" Northeast of Victoria are other large lakes, as reported by the 
natives, but not yet accurately delineated. Thomson has lately dis- 
covered one 6,000 feet above the sea. 

"Southeast of Tanganyika, about 250 miles, is Nyassa Lake, 300 
miles long, first definitely described by Dr. Livingstone. This is 
1,800 feet above the sea. There is a small steamer on this lake — 
as also on Victoria and Tanganyika. And steamers are briskly 
plying up and down the Congo. 

" Ere many years there will be a railroad from Nyassa to Tangan- 
yika—an easy route— and from Zanzibar to the great lakes — a more 
difficult route. The pressing demands of trade insure these results. 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 



463 



A wagon road is already partly constructed between the two lakes, 
making a speedier, safer and easier route to the interior via Zambesi 
and Shire Kivers, Lakes Nyassa and Tanganyika, with a land car- 
riage of only seventy-five miles between the rapids on the Shire and 
Lake Nyassa." 

That portion of Africa below the tropics, and known in general 
as South Africa, has resources of animal, forest, soil, climate, water 
and mineral which have proved inviting to Europeans, though there 
is nothing to render them any more acceptable than similar features 
as found in other sub-tropical or temperate latitudes, excepting, 
perhaps, the peculiar mineral deposits in the Kimberly section, 
which yield diamonds of great value, and a richness of animal life 
which formerly proved fascinating to the hunter and adventurer. 

The belt extending clear across the continent from Angola and 
Benguela, south of the Congo, to the mouth of the Zambesi, and 
which is a water shed between the Congo basin and rivers running 




NATIVE RAT TRAP. 



southward, till the great valley of the Zambesi is reached, has all 
the peculiarities of soil, climate, forest and people found in the 
Congo basin. Its tribes, according to Pinto, are of the same gen- 
eral type as those further north. The rivers abound in hippopotami 
and crocodiles, the forests in anteloj)e and buffaloes, elephants, lions 
and wild birds. There is the same endless succession of wooded 
valleys and verdure clad plains, and the same products under culti- 
vation. The natives are if anything better skilled in the uses of 



15-64 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

iron, and are more ingenious in turning it to domestic account, as 
in tlie manufacture of utensils, traps and other conveniences. They 
are natural herdsmen, dress better, at least more fantastically, per- 
petuate all of the native superstitions, and are more confirmed trad- 
ers, having for a longer time been in remote contact with the Por- 
tuguese influence penetrating the Zambesi, and extending inland 
from Loanda and Benguela. 

We therefore turn to Equatorial, or Central Africa, in quest of 
those resources which are distinguishing, and which give to the 
continent its real value in commercial eyes. And in so doing, there 
is no authority superior to that of Stanley, whose opportunity for 
observation has been greatest. We can readily detect in his narra- 
tive the entliusiasm of a pioneer, but at the same time must feel per- 




AFRICAN HATCHET. 

suaded that fuller and more exact research, and especially the 
supreme trial to which commercial development puts all things 
natural, will far more than verify his first impressions. 

This Africa is typed by the Congo Basin, which stretches practi- 
cally across Africa, interweaving with the Zambesi water system on 
the south and the Nile system on the north. The Congo is the 
grand feature of its basin, and the kernel of the greatest commer- 



AFEICAN RESOURCES. 465 

cial problem of the age. To understand it, is to understand more 
of African resource than any other natural object furnishes. It lias 
its maritime region, whicli is the African rind before alluded to. 
This region extends from Banana Point at the mouth of the great 
river to Boma, seventy miles from the sea, and the river passes 
througlr it in the form of a broad deep estuary. At Boma the 
hilly, mountainous region commences, the groups of undulations 
rising gradually to a height of 2000 feet above the sea. The river 
is still navigable in this region, up to Vivi, 110 miles from the sea, 
though the channel is reduced to a width of 1500 yards. From 
Vivi to Isangila, a distance of fifty miles, is the lower series of 
Livingstone Falls. From Isangila to Manyanga is a navigable 
stretch of eighty-eight miles. Then comes the upper series of 
Livingstone Falls, extending for eighty-five miles, from Manyanga 
to Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool. This practically brings the 
mighty flood through the mountainous region of 240 miles in width, 
and opens a navigable stretch of 1068 miles, extending from Stanley 
Pool to Stanley Falls. From Stanley Falls to Nyangwe, in the fruit- 
ful country of the Manyuema, a nation in themselves, and notorious 
in Centi-al Africa for their valor and cruelty in war, is a course of 
385 miles, navigable for light craft. From Nyangwe to Lake 
Moero the river course is 440 miles. This lake is sixty-seven 
miles long. Thence is a river stretch of 220 miles to Lake Bang- 
weola which is 161 miles long. It then begins to lose itself in its 
head waters in the Chibal*^ Hills, though its main affluent here, the 
Chambesi, has a length of 360 miles. This gives a total length of 
main stream equal to 3034 miles. It divides itself into five geogra- 
phic sections; the maritime section, from the sea to Leopoldville; 
the Upper Congo section, extending from Leopoldville to Stanley 
Falls ; the Lualaba (so called bj'' Livingstone) section from Stanley 
Falls to the Chambesi ; the Chambesi, or head water section ; and 
the Tanganyika section. 

The first section, which includes the really maritime and the 
mountainous, is, in its lower part next to the sea, but thinly popu- 
lated, owing to the slave trade and the effect of internal wars. But 
the natives are, as a rule, tractable and amenable to improvement 
and discipline. They are industrious and perfectly willing to hire 
60 



466 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 



themselves as porters. In its mountainous part, the country is com- 
posed of swells of upland separated bj gorges and long, winding 
water courses, showing that the land has been gradually stripped 
for centuries of its ricb loam by the tropical rains. On the uplands 
are groves of palm and patches of tropical forest. In the hollows 




NATIVES RUNNING TO WAR, 

are rich vegetable products, so thick as to be impenetrable. The 
ground-nut, palm-nut, rubber, gum-opal, orchilla, and various other 
articles of commerce, are natural products of this section. 

Through the second section the Congo sweeps in the shape of an 
ox-bow, 1068 miles, crossing the Epuator twice. Here is that 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 467 

might}^ system of tributaries which more than double the navigable 
waters of the great basin. On the south are the Kwa, navigable up 
to Lake Leopold II, a distance of 281 miles ; the Lukanga with its 
shores lined with shrewd native traders ; the Mohindu, navigable 
for 650 miles; the Ikelemba, seat of the Bakuti tribe, navigable 
for 125 miles ; the Lulungu, reported to be more populous than the 
Congo, navigable for 800 miles ; the Lubiranzi, navigable for 
twenty -five miles. 

On the north side is the Lufini, navigable for thirty miles ; the 
Alima, navigable for fifty miles ; the Likuba, with fifty miles of 
navigation; the Bunga, ]50 miles; the Balui, 350, the Ubanga 
and Ngala, 450 miles, together ; the Itimbiri, 250 miles ; the Nkakii, 
sixty miles ; the Biyerre ninety-six miles ; the Chofu, twenty-five 
miles, 

Tliis section alone, therefore, gives a direct steam mileage of 5250 
miles, and the rivers drain an area of over 1,000,000 square miles. 
Stanley says the wealth of Equatorial Africa lies in this section. It 
is cut by the Equator, whose rain-belt discharges showers for ten 
months in the year. North and south from the Equator, the dry 
periods are longer. The population of tlie section, Staulej^ esti- 
mates to be 43,500,000. His observations were, of course, confined 
to the river districts, but other travelers confirm his estimates. 
Weissman says of the Lubilash country, " It is densly peopled and 
some of the villages are miles in length. They are clean, with 
commodious houses shaded by oil-pialms and bananas, and sur- 
rounded by carefully divided fields in which, quite contrary to the 
usual African practice, man is seen to till tlie fields while women 
attend to household offices. From the Lubilash to the Lumani 
there stretches almost uninterruptedly a prairie region of great 
fertility, the future pasture grounds of the world. The reddish 
loam, overlying the granite, bears luxuriant grass and clumps of 
trees, and only the banks are densely wooded. The rain falls dur- 
ing eight months of the year, from September to April, bnt they 
are not excessive. The temperature varies, from 63° to 81°, but 
occasionally, in the dry season, falls as low as 45°." 

The southeastern portion of this section is, on the authority of 
Tippoo Tib, who doubtless ranged it more extensively than any 



468 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

Other man, dotted with villages, some of which took him two hours 
to pass through. * The country is a succession of prairies and parks, 
of rare fertility and beauty. On the nortli and northeast of this 
section is the residence of the Monbuttus, Niam-Niaras and Dinkas, 
all powerful tribes, living in comparative peace, having neat vil- 
lages surrounded by fruitful plantations, lovers of the chase, rich in 
herds of tine cattle, skilled in the manufacture of spears and uten- 
sils of iron, experts in pottery making and ornamentation, light of 
form but wonderfully agile, a copper rather than black color, and 
very num.erous. Says Sweinfurth, "From the Wei M river to the 
residence of the Monbuttu king, Munza, the way leads through a 
country of marvellous beauty, an almost unbroken line of the prim- 
itively simple dwellings extending on either side of the caravan 
route." The Niam-Niam country alone lie estimates at 5400 square 
miles in extent, with a population of 2,000,000, which would give 
the extraordinary rate of 370 to the square mile, 

Stanley's own observation on the Mohindu and Ttimbiri rivers 
fully confirmed the story of Miyongo respecting the Lulungu, that 
the further he traveled from the banks of the river the thicker he 
would^find the population. 

All of this immense section is capable of the richest and most 
varied vegetable productions. True, until intercourse comes about 
by steam, or otherwise, but little use can be made of these products, 
yet there they are in abundance now, and susceptible of infinite 
additions under the care of intelligent tillage. There is an almost 
infinite variety of palms, the most useful of which is the oil-palm, 
whose nut supplies the dark-red palm oil, which has proved such a 
source of wealth in the Oil-river regions of the Niger country and 
on the west coast in general. The kernel of these nuts makes an 
oil-cake which is excellent for fattening and conditioning cattle. 
This palm towers in every forest grove and beautifies every island 
in the rivers. In many places it constitues the entire forest, to the 
exclusion of trees of harder wood and sturdier growth. As each 
tree yields from 500 to 1000 nuts, some idea of the commercial 
value of each can be gathered. 

Another valuable plant in commerce and one which abounds in 
this section is the India rubber plant. It is of three kinds, all of 



AFRICAN" RESOURCES. 



469 



them prolific, and all as yet untouched. Stanley estimates 
that enough india rubber could be gathered on the islands of the 
Congo and in the adjacent forests on the shores, in one year, to pay 
for the construction of a Congo railway. Then there are other 
gums, useful for varnishes, as the white and red opal. These are 
gathered and treasured by the natives of the fishing villages, and 
used as torches while fishing, but the}^ know nothing of their value 
in the arts. Vegetable oils are extracted from the ground-nut, the 
oil-berry and the castor plant. The ground-nut oils are used by the 
natives for lights, the extract of the oil-berry is used for cooking, 
while the castor-oils are used as medicine, just as with civilized 
people. 




UBANGI BLACKSMITHS. 



Whole areas of forest are covered with dense canopies of orchilla, 
useful as a dye, and every village has a supply of red- wood powder. 
But in nothing are the forests and plains of tbis immense section so 
remarkable as in the variety and quality of the vegetation capable 
of producing commercial fibres. Here are endless supplies of 
paper material, rope material, material for baskets, mattings and 
all kinds of cloths, such as we now make of hemp and jute. 

The more industrious and ingenious tribes run to specialties in 
turning luxuriant nature into account. The red- wood powder of 
Lake Mantamba is counted the best. Iboco palm-fibre matting 



470 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

ranks as the jute textiles of Scotland. The Irebu are the Japan- 
ese sun-sbacleand floor-mat makers. The Yalulima are artists in tlie 
manufacture of double bells. The Ubangi are the Toledo sword- 
makers of Africa. How bountiful their supply of iron is, remains 
to be ascertained, but it is presumably a plentiful mineral, and its 
use among these people, not to say numerous other tribes, is evi- 
dence that the stone age of Africa was past, long before the heathen 
of Europe and America had ceased to strike fire by flints in their 
chilly caverns, or crush one another's skulls with granite toma- 
hawks. The iron spears and swords of some of these African 
tribes arernodels in their way, keen as Damascus blades and bright 
as if mirrored on Sheffield emery wheels. 

One of the comforts of civilization, the buffalo robe, is fast becom- 
ing a thing of the past. Africa may yet furnish a supply, or at least 
a valuable skin for tanning purposes, out of the numerous herds of 
buffalo which are found everywhere in this great central section. 
The kings and chiefs of the African tribes afi'ect monkey skin dra- 
pery as royal dresses. If they knew the favor in which similar 
dresses were held upon our boulevards, they might take contracts 
to supply the fashionable outside world for generations, and thereby 
enrich themselves. Our tanneries, furrier-shops and rug-makers 
would go wild Vv'ith delight over African invoices of goat-skins, 
antelope hides, lion and leopard skins, if annual excursions of 
traders and hunters could be sent to the Upper Congo country, at 
the cost of a through passage on an express tr9,in. And how our 
milliners would rejoice over the beauty and variety of bonnet deco- 
rations if they could reduce to possession even a tithe of the gor- 
geous plumage which flits incessantly through the forest spaces of 
tropical Africa. 

Then where in Africa is there not honey, sweet as that of Hybla 
or Hymettus, with its inseparable product, bees- wax ? Not all the 
perfumes of Arabia nor of the Isles of the Sea can equal in vol- 
ume and fragrance the frankincense and myrrh of the Congo region. 
As to ivory, Stanley estimates the elephant herds of the Congo basin 
at 15,000 in number, each herd numbering twelve to fifteen ele- 
phants—a total of 200,000 giants, each one walking about with 
fifty pounds of ivory in his head, or 10,000,000 pounds in all, 



472 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

worth in the rough $25,000,000, or when manufactured, a sum suffi- 
cient to enrich a kingdom. Nor does he consider this estimate too 
large, for he had met travelers who had seen as many as 300 ele- 
phants in a single herd, and who had killed so many that their car- 
casses blocked the stream they were crossing. Major Yetch had 
killed twenty in one locality, and a missionary, Mr. Ingham, had, 
more in a self-supporting than in a sporting spirit, shot twenty-five 
and turned their tusks into money. For a century, the ivory trade 
has been an important one on the eastern coast of Africa, yet the 
field of supply has only been skirted. 

But civilization must tap and destroy this source of wealth, 
unless parks could be preserved and elephants reared for the sake 
of their ivory. Wonderful as are his figures respecting this resource, 
Stanley regards it as of little moment in comparison with other 
resources of the great basin. It would not equal in commercial 
value the pastime of the idle warriors of the basin, if each one 
were to find such in the picking of a third of a pound of rubber a 
day for a year, or in the melting of two-thirds of a pound of palm- 
oil, for then the aggregate of either would exceed $25,000,000 in 
value, and nature would be none the poorer for the drain upon her 
resources. The same could be said if each warrior picked half a 
pound of gum-copal per day, collected half a pound of orchilla, or 
ground out half a pound of red-wood powder. 

Stanley, and indeed all explorers of Central Africa, are convinced 
that iron ore abounds. It must be that the iron formations are 
manifest, for the natives are not given to mining, yet most of the 
tribes are iron- workers, patient and skillful, according to the 
unanimous testimony of travelers, and as the trophies sent home 
testify. Near Phillipville are copper mines which supply a large 
portion of Western Africa with copper ingots. Among the 
Manyanga tribes, copper ingots are a commodity as common as 
vegetables and fowls. To the southeast of the Upper Congo section 
are copper supplies for the numerous caravans that find ingress and 
egress by way of the Zambesi. Both Livingstone and Pinto found 
tribes on the Upper Zambesi who were skillful copper-smiths. It 
is known that black-lead exists in the Congo region. It has ever 
been a dream that Africa possessed rich gold fields. Though this 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 473 

dream was early dispelled as to the Gold Coast, it appertains as to 
other regions, for the roving Arabs are accustomed to return from 
their inland visits bearing bottles filled with gold dust, which they 
sav they have filled from the beds of streams which they crossed. 

Every observer can inform himself as to the agricultural resources 
of Central Africa. It is an exception on the Upper Congo, and for 
that matter anywhere in Central Africa, to find a village without 
its cleared and cultivated plats for maize and sugar cane, and some of 
these plats have the extent and appearance of well ordered plantations. 
Evej'y where the banana and plantain flourish, and yield a bountiful 
supply of wholesome, nourishing food. Millet is grown among 
some tribes for the sake of the flour it yields ; but everywhere on 
the main river the chief dependence for a farinaceous diet is on the 
manioc plant, which yields the tapioca of commerce. The black 
bean grows almost without cultivation, and yields prolifically. 

There is hardly anything in the vegetable line that does not find 
a home in tropical Africa. The sweet-potato grows to immense 
size, as do cucumbers, melons of all kinds, pumpkins, tomatoes, 
while cabbages, the Irish potato, the onion and other garden 
vegetables introduced from the temperate zone thrive in a most 
unexpected manner. 

Wherever the Arab traders and settlers have struck this section 
from the east they have introduced the cultivation of rice and 
wheat with success, and they have carried along the planting of the 
mangoe, lime, orange, lemon, pine-apple and guava, all of which 
take hold, grow vigorously and produce liberally. All of these last 
have been tried on the Congo with the greatest encourage- 
ment. 

Then there is practically no limit to the spice plants found grow- 
ing naturally in the Congo section and capable of introduction. 
Ginger and nutmeg are quite common amid the rich plant growth 
of the entire section. As the immense prairie stretches of the 
Upper Congo and the Lake regions may at no distant day become 
the grazing ground for the world's cattle supply, or the granary of 
nations, so th*e river bottoms, and the uplands as well, may become 
the cotton producing areas of the maufacturing world. Cotton is 
indigenous and grows everywhere. It is especially fond of the 



474 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

cleared spots wliicli mark the site of deserted villages, and asserts 
itself to the exclusion of other vegetation. It has neither frost nor 
drought to contend with, and nature has given it a soil in which it 
may revel, without the requirement of sedulous cultivation. 

It may well be asked in connection with this section, what is 
there which civilization demands, or is used to, for its table, its 
factory, or store-house, that it does not produce, or cannot be made 
to produce? If it supports a population almost equal to that of 
Europe, a population without appliances for farming and manu- 
facturing, a population of comparative idlers, what a surplus it 
might produce under intelligent management and with a moderate 
degree of industry. The native energy of Africa, even with the 
most advanced tribes, is sadly misdirected, or rather, not directed 
at all. The best muscle of every tribe is diverted to warlike 
pursuits or to the athleticism of the chase. Whilst it is not a 
rule that it is undignified for a full grown male to work, the 
customs are such as to attract him into other channels of effort, so 
that the burden of work is thrown upon the women. They are the 
vegetable gardeners, the raisers of fowls and goats, and in the cattle 
regions of the Upper Congo and Zambesi, they are the milk-maids, 
the calf-raisers and herd attendants. Therefore, African labor is to- 
day like African vegetation ; it is labor run wild. It is a keen, 
excellent labor under the spur of reward, just as the African com- 
mercial sense is alive to all the tricks of trade. What it requires 
is instruction and proper direction, and with these one may find in 
tropical Africa a resource of far more value, both at home and 
abroad, than all the untold wealth of forest, soil or mine. 

We see and hear too little of the human resources of Africa. 
By this we do not mean that religion does not regard the African 
as a fit subject for conversion, nor that ethnology does not seek to 
study him as a curiosity, nor that commerce fails to use him as a 
convenience, nor that the lust of the Orient has ceased to discuss 
him as a source of gratification, but we do mean that with all the 
writing about African resources and possibilities, the fertility of 
soil, the luxuriance of forest, the plenitude of minerals, the exuber- 
ance of animal hfe, there is but meagre discussion of the place the 
native himself is to fill, considered also in the light of a natural 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 475 

resource. While we grow infatuated with descriptions of African 
wealth and possibility, we almost skip the mightiest problem 
Africa can reveal, the relationship its own people are to bear to its 
material development, their status as factors in unfolding the inner 
continent to the outer world. The eyes of commercial and manu- 
facturing Europe are so set upon the main advantage, to wit, that 
of grabbing African lands and appropriating at a cheap rate what- 
ever is accessible, as to overlook the future of the native. Our own 
eyes have been so dimmed by the melancholy sight of the North 
American Indian fading away before our boasted civilization, or 
by sight of the sons of Africa forced into degradation at the behest 
of hard-hearted greed, as that they are actually blind to the human 
factor in African enterprise. With all our respect for civihzation, 
it must be confessed that it has failed signally to use to advantage 
what it found God- made and at hand, when it struck new continents 
and islands. It has destroyed and supplanted, as on the American 
continents, the Pacific islands, in Southern Africa, in the East 
Indies. Is that to be the role of civihzation in Central Africa? 
Does not that continent present a higher and more humanitarian 
problem ? Driven to desperation by a baffling climate, yet spurred 
by an inordinate cupidity, will not the civilization of the white 
man be compelled to the exercise of a genius which shall embrace 
the native populations, classify them as an indispensible resource, 
lift them to a plain of intelligent energy, look upon them as things 
of equality, and ultimately regard them as essentials in the art of 
progress and the race for development ? We regard extinction of 
the African races as fatal to African development. There is noplace 
in the world where the civilized commercial instinct crosses so 
directly the natural laws of the universe as in Africa. There is no 
place in the world where the ordinary forces of colonization are so 
nonplussed as in Africa. If we are to go ahead with our 
humanitarian and commercial and political problems in Africa, in 
the old fashioned, uncompromising, brutal way ; if Africa is to be 
civilized by 'the rejection of Africans, by their extinction or 
degradation ; then will civilization commit a graver mistake and 
more heinous crime than when it forced the Indian into the lava-bed, 
the Aztec into the Pacific or the Inca into bondage, and death in 



4.76 AFEICAN RESOURCES. 

the mine. America has its race problem on hand, to be solved more 
by blacks than whites. Africa presents the same problem to the 
world. Whatever the white man may make out of African 
resource by following the usual formula of civilization, reduction, 
extirpation and so on, on the unchristian plea that tbe end justifies 
the means, that result can be safely increased a thousand times if 
only it is not forgotten that the native is the true, the natural, 
factor in any rational and permanent scheme of development. 

The next section of Central Africa which comes under observa- 
tion is that which is watered by the Lualaba, or in other words, 
the Congo, from Stanley Falls to Lake Bangweola. This is an 
immense section, embracing 246,000 square miles, or a length of 
1260 miles. This section comprehends the several lakes on the 
Lualaba and the drainage system on both sides of that river, but ex- 
cluding Tanganyika, and that part of the reservoir system known 
as the Muta Nzige., Lake Bangweola covers 10,000 square miles; 
Lake Moero, 2,700 square miles ; and Lake Kassali, 2,200 square 
miles. From Stanley Falls to Nyangwe is 827 miles, all navi- 
gable, except the six miles below ISTyangw^. On the riglit side, 
going up, the Lualaba receives the Leopold river, navigable for 
thirty miles; the Lowa, navigable for an unknown distance; the 
Ulindi, 400 yards wide, and navigable ; the Lira, a deep, clear 
stream, 300 yards wide; the Luama, 250 miles long; the Luigi, 
and Lukuga, the latter being the outlet of Lake Tanganyika. 

On the left side the Lualaba receives the Black Kiver, the 
Lumani, and the Kamolondo. Above Nyangw^, the main stream 
is again navigable to Moero Lake. Altogether there are 1,100 
miles of navigable water in this section. It has, for twenty years, 
been a favorite stamping ground for slave traders, and its popula- 
tion has therefore been greatly decimated, yet Stanley estimates 
it at 6,000,000, embraced in nine principal and many subordinate 
tribes. On the Lower Lualaba are four important trading points, 
long used by the Arabs for their nefarious purposes, and all readily 
accessible to the eastern coast of Africa, over well defined routes. 
These points are Kasongo, Nyangwe, Vibondo, and Kirundu. They 
are even more accessible from the west coast by way of the 
Congo, and Stanley regards them as valuable points for the gath- 



AFEICAN BESOURCES. 47? 

ering and dissemination of trade, since their populations have had 
twenty years of experience in traffic with outsiders. With their 
assistance the fine herds of cattle reared by the tribes of the plains 
east of the Lualaba might be brought to that river, and distributed 
along the entire length of the Congo, or even carried to European 
markets. This section is just as rich in natural products as that 
of the Upper Congo, and of the same general character. 

The Chambesi is the main stream pouring into Lake Bangweola. 
Stanley makes it give a name to the section which embraces the 
head-waters of the Congo. It is a basin, walled in by high moun- 
tains whose sides and ravines furnish the springs of the Congo, and 
whose heights form the water-shed between the Congo and Zam- 
besi. The Chambesi is a large, clear, swift stream, with several 
important afiiuents. It runs through a country, overgrown with 
papyrus, rushes, and tall grasses, which are most wearisome to the 
traveler. The country abounds in food, and the people are " civil 
and reasonable," as Livingstone says. The interminable prairies 
are broken only by occasional rows of forest, indicative of a stream 
or'ravine. Much of the land is inundated during the rainy season, 
giving rise to swamps of great extent and of difficult passage. 
Where this is not the case, the land affords rich pasturage for the 
herds of the Babisa and other tribes engaged in stock raising. This 
remote but interesting section is not over 46,000 miles in extent, 
with a population of 500,000. 

As Stanley depends on Livingstone for his description of the 
Chambesi and Upper Lualaba country, and as this region was the 
object of a special journey by Livingstone — unfortunately for 
science and humanity, his last journey — it is proper to get an 
impression of it from the great explorer himself. 

He started for it from Delagoa Bay, by waj^ of the Rovuma river, 
which empties into Delagoa Bay, on the east coast nearly half way 
between the mouth of the Zambesi and Zanzibar. This river has 
its source well inland toward Lake Nyassa, and hence its ascent 
would bring him into the Lake region. All this ground has now 
become historic through the English and Portuguese struggle for 
its permanent possession. 

Though the last of Livingstone's journeys it was his most hope- 



478 AFRICAN RESOUECES. 

f 
ful. Says he:— "The mere animal pleasure of traveling in a wild, 

unexplored country is very great. When on lands of a couple of 
thousand feet elevation, brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the 
muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through the brain, the 
mind works well, the eye is clear, the step is firm, and the day's 
exertion always makes the evening's repose thoroughly enjoyable. 
We have usually the stimulus of remote chances of danger from 
man or beast. Our sympathies are dravvn out toward our humble, 
hardy companions by a community of interests, and it may be of 
perils, which make us all friends. Nothing but the most pitiable 
puerility would lead any manly heart to make their inferiority a 
theme for self-exaltation. However, that is often done, as if with 
the vague idea that we can, by magnifying their deficiencies, dem- 
onstrate our own perfections. The effect of travel on a man whose 
heart is in the right place is, that the mind is made more self- 
reliant. It becomes more confident of its own resources — there is 
greater presence of mind. The body is soon well knit. The 
muscles of the limbs grow as hard as a board, and seem to have no 
fat. The countenance is bronzed and there is no dyspepsia. Africa 
is a most wonderful country for the appetite, and it is only when 
one gloats over marrow bones or elephants' feet that indigestion is 
possible. No doubt much toil is involved, and fatigue of which 
travelers in the more temperate climes can form but a faint con- 
ception. But the sweat of one's brow is no longer a curse when 
one works for God. It proves a tonic to the system and is actually 
a blessing. No one can truly appreciate the charm of repose unless 
he has undergone severe exertion." 

Thus buoyantly he started for the interior, employing a retinue 
of human carriers and servants, andsupplimenting them with cameb, 
mules and trained buffaloes. It was, in some respects, the most 
unique caravan of exploration that ever entered an unknown land. 
As to camels for carriers, away from the desert and through track- 
less jungle and forest, it was in the nature of an experiment which 
soon grew tiresome and ended in failure. As to the mules, they 
soon fell a prey to the tsetse fly. As to the buffaloes, which, together 
with the native oxen, had stood him in good stead through all his 
wanderings in the Kalahari desert, where they are in daily use as 



480 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

beasts of burden aud the saddle by the natives, these too fell a 
victim to the merciless attack of the tsetse. He was therefore left 
with his two faithful attendants, Chuma and Susi, and his retinue 
of native carriers. 

Passing through the wonderful country which borders the 
Eovuma, a country of peaceful tribes and plentiful products, with 
nothing more than the usual adventures of an African traveler, he 
at last arrived at Lake Nyassa. At this lake, Livingstone was on the 
west side of what is now known as the Mozambique territory, though 
it is more familiar as Nyassaland. The' lake is part of the north- 
ern Zambesi water system, and its outlet into that stream is through 
the river Shire. On account of the absence of boats, which were 
all in the hands of suspicious Arab slave merchants, he was forced 
to pass down the east side of the lake and cross over its outlet, the 
Shire. It was by the waters of this beautiful river and the Zam- 
besi that Livingstone always hoped to secure an easy access to 
Central Africa. The only obstacles then were the foolish policy 
of the Portuguese with regard to custom duties at the mouth of 
the Zambesi, and the falls on the Shire which obstruct its naviga- 
tion for seventy miles. Plad he lived a few more years he would 
have seen both of these obstacles in part overcome, and the mission 
work of Bishop Steere, supplementing that of Bishop Mackenzie, so 
far forward as to girdle the lake with prosperous mission stations. 
As Livingstone rounded the southern end of the lake, he could not 
help recalling the fact that far down the Shirt^ lay in its last sleep 
the body of the lamented Mackenzie, and that further down on the 
right bank of the Zambesi slept the remains of her whose death 
had changed all his future prospects. His prophecy that at no dis- 
tant day civilization and the Gospel would assert itself in this prom- 
ising land is now meeting with fulfillment in the claims of England 
to a right of way into Central Africa through this very region, at 
the expense of Portugal, whose older right has been forfeited by 
non-user. 

In striking westward from the lake, Livingstone found the people 
to be a modification of the great Waiyau branch, which extends 
from the lake to Mozambique. He was also impressed with the 
fact that but one stock inhabited all the country on the Zambesi, 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 



481 



Shire, Lake ISTjassa and Lake Tanganyika, owing to the slight dif- 
ference in their dialects. The first tribe he came in contact with, 
were both pastoral and agricultural. Their cattle ranged over 
grassy, fertile plains, and were characterized by the large hump on 
the shoulders, which seemed, in some instances, to weigh as mucli 
as a hundred pounds. They cultivated very fine gardens, and al. 




WOMEN CARRIERS. 

seemed to work, though the burden of labor fell on the slaves. 
Wild animals were plenty, and during Livingstone's stay in the 
village a woman was carried away and wholly devoured by a lion. 
In passing westward to the next village, his escort consisted of a 
large party of Waiyau, accompanied by six women carriers, who 
bore supplies for their husbands, a part of which consisted of native 
beer. His course brought him upon that peculiarity of soil which 
characterizes all the head streams of the Shire county, theZambosi 
and the Congo, He designates it as earth sponge. The vegetation 
31 



AFEICAN RESOURCES. 483 

about the streams falls down, but is not incorporated with the 
earth. It forms a rich, black loamy mass, two or three feet tbick 
which rests on the sand of the streams. When dry it cracks into 
gaps of two or three inches in width, but when wet it is converted 
into a sponge, which presents all the obstacles of a swamp or bog 
to the foot of the traveler. 

On this journey, he witnessed a native method of hunting with 
dogs and the basket trap. The trap is laid down in the track of 
some small animal and the dogs are put on the trail. The animal 
in its flight runs into the open mouth of the trap, and through a set 
of converging bamboo splits which prevent its return. Mice and 
rats are caught in similarly constructed traps, which are made of 
wire instead of wood. A similar method of catching wild animals 
of larger growth was formerly in vogue in the southern Zambesi 
section. Long leads of wattled palisading were erected, open at the 
base and gradually narrowing to an apex, in which a pit was dug 
covered over with a layer of grass. Hunters scoured the plains in 
extended circles, beating in all the game within the circles. The 
frightened beasts, pushed by the gradually closing hunters and 
demoralized by their antics and noises, rush into the trap prepared 
for them and fall helplessly into the pit, where they are captured. 
This method of hunting is called ^^ hopo^ 

The village he reached was inhabited by the Manganza, who are 
extremely clever in the art of manufacture. Their looms turn out 
a strong servi cable cotton cloth. Their iron weapons show a taste 
for design not equalled by any of their neighbors, and it is the same 
with all implements relating to husbandry. Though far better 
artisans than the more distinctive Waiyau, they are defiwent in 
dash and courage. He was now at an elevation of 4,000 feet above 
the sea, in the midst of a very fine country, where the air was 
delightfully clear and delicious. The cultivation was so general, 
and the fields so regularly laid out, that it required but little imagi- 
nation to picture it as an English scene. The trees were only in 
clumps, and marked the tops of ridges, the sites of villages or the 
places of sepulture. The people go well armed with bows ^d 
arrows, and fine knives of domestic manufacture, and being gi¥at 
hunters they have pretty well rid their section of game. The worneu 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 485 

wear their hair long, dress in reasonably full clothing, and have 
somewhat the appearance of the ancient Egyptians. 

The westward journey brought him to the Kanthunda people, 
partly plain-dwellers and partly mountaineers. They are very 
pompous and ceremonious. Food was found in plenty, raised by 
their own hands, since game was well nigh extinct. The villages 
were now very frequent, mostly situated in groves composed of 
large trees. The country was broken into liigh ranges of hills with 
broad valley sweeps between. The thermometer frequently sank 
to 64° degrees at night, but the sun was intolerably hot during the 
day, necessitating short journeys. 

All this time Livingstone had been passing westward through 
the system which drains either into Lake Nyassa or directly into 
the Zambesi. His objective being the basin which supplies the 
head streams of the Congo, he turned his journey northward in the 
direction of the mountains which divide the two great river systems. 

The tribes he now struck were greatly harassed by tlie Mazuti, 
who stole their corn annually and made frequent raids for the cap- 
ture of slaves. Yet they were hospitable and prosperous, being 
skillful weavers and iron-workers. The country was mountainous, 
for he was on the divide between the waters which drain into Lake 
Nyassa and those Avhich flow into the Loangwa on the west, the 
latter being an important affluent of the Zambesi. Striking the 
head- waters of the Lokushwa, a tributary of the Loangwa, he 
followed its course to the main stream, through a country of dwarf 
forests, and peoples collected in stockades, who were the smiths for 
a large region, making and selling hoes and other iron utensils. 

He crossed the Loangwa at a point where it is 100 yards wide, 
and in a country abounding in game. It was here that he indulged 
in those regretful thoughts respecting the gradual passing away of 
the magnificent herds of wild animals — zebras, elands, buffaloes, 
giraffes, gnus, and numerous species of deer and antelope — which 
once roamed all over Central and South Africa, down to the Cape of 
Good Hope, which are every year being thinned away, or driven north- 
wards. The lion — the boasted king of animals — makes a poor 
figure beside the tsetse fly in travellers' records. The general 
impression about him is that, in spite of his formidable strength, 



....^immmaummmitiimmiit 



!■ 




-..' ^<ir:,^j^iLjm%Lj, mjimm'm 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 487 

his imposing roaring, and his majestic mane, he is a coward and a 
skulker. Livingstone had a hearty contempt for the brute, though 
in his time he had been severely mauled and bitten by him. The 
lion, however, when sore pressed by hunger, has been known to 
pluck up sufficient courage to tear off the flimsy roof of a native 
hut and leap down upon the sleeping inmates. The elephant — a 
much grander animal in every respect — occasionally performs a 
similar feat, his motive being curiosity, or perhaps mischief, if one 
of his periodical fits of ill-nature is upon him. A sight may now 
and again be got of a roaming rhinoceros tramping stolidly with 
surly gruntings through the depths of the thicket; a glade will be 
suddenly opened up where a group of shaggy buffaloes are grazing; 
or a herd of startled giraffes will break away in a shambling gallop, 
their long necks swinging ungracefully to and fro, as they crash 
their way through the forest, like " locomotive obelisks." JSTow and 
then a shot may be got at a troop of zebras, pallahs, wild-beeste, or 
other big-game animals, and the scanty larder be replenished for a 
time ; but the traveler must often lay his account with being abso- 
lutely in want of food, and be fain, like Livingstone, to draw in his 
belt an inch or two in lieu of dinner. 

But the most gallant sport in these regions — excelling in danger 
and excitement even elephant-hunting — is the chase of the hippo- 
potamus. On the Loangwa Livingstone met an entire tribe, the 
Makomwe, devoted exclusively to hippopotamus hunting. They 
reside in temporary huts on the islands, and when game gets scarce 
in one place the}'- move to another. The flesh of the animals thev 
kill is exchanged for grain brought to the river by the more settled 
tribes. In hunting, two men have charge of a long, shapely canoe. 
The men, one in the bow and one in the stern, use short, broad 
paddles, and as they guide the canoe down the river upon the sleep- 
ing hippopotamus, not a ripple is seen on the water. The paddlers 
seem to be holding their breaths and communicate by signs only. 
As they near their prey, the harpooner in the bow, lays down his 
paddle, rises slowly up, with his harpoon poised in his hand, and at 
the right moment plunges it into the animal near the heart. His 
companion in the stern now backs the canoe. At this stage there 
is little danger, for the beast remains for a time at the bottom of the 



488 AFRtCA:^? RESOURCES. 

r,ver. Bat soon his surprise is over, the wound begins to smart, he 
feels the need of air, through exhaustion. The strong rope attached 
to the harpoon has a float fastened to one end, and this float desig- 
nates the spot occupied by the beast. It is known that he will soon 
come to the surface, and the canoe now approaches the float, the 
harpooner having another harpoon poised in hand ready for a 
second throw. The situation is full of danger. Perhaps the second 
lunge is successful, but the beast generally comes up with an angry 
bellow and is ready to smash the canoe in his enormous jaws. Woe 
betide the occupants, unless they seek safety in the water. This 
they are often forced to do, but even then are not safe, unless they 
swim below the surface. Other canoes now come up and each one 
sends an harpoon into the body of the prey. Then they all begin 
to pull on the connecting ropes, dragging the beast hither and 
thither, till it succumbs through loss of blood. Swarms of croco- 
diles invariably crowd about the scene, attracted by the scent of the 
bleeding carcass. 

The people he met with after passing the Loangwa were less 
civil, yet by no means hostile. The forests were of larger growth 
and more extensive. Animal life was rich in variety, as much so 
as on the Zambesi itself, and it was nothing unusual to bring down 
a gnu, an eland, and other royal animals in the same day. The 
country was a wide valley stretch, clothed with vegetation and very 
fertile. It reached to the Lobemba country, whose people are 
crafty and given to falsehoods. They are fond of hunting and 
attack the elephant with dogs and spears. The land is beautiful 
and fruitful, but the tribes have been torn by slave-raiders and 
intestinal wars. 

The Babisa people, further north, are franker and better off. 
They trade without urging, and are given to much social gaiety. 
Livingstone witnessed in their midst the performance of the rain 
dance by four females, who appeared with their faces smeared, with 
war hatchets in their hands, and singing in imitation of the male 
voice. These people degenerate as the northern brim of the 
Loangwa valley is approached, and are dependent for food on wild 
fruits, roots and leaves. 

Passing further up among the head- streams of the Loangwa, the 



490 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

country becomes a succession of enormous eartli waves, sustaining 
a heavy growth of jungle, without traces of paths. Marks of 
elephant and buffalo feet are frequent in the oozy soil about the 
streams, but the animals are shy. Serpents are plenty, and every 
now and then cobras and puff-adders are seen in the trails. The 
climate is delightful, bordering on cool, for now it must be under- 
stood, the elevation is high, the traveller being well up on the 
water-shed between the Congo and Zambesi. 

At length the mountain ranges are scaled, and the streams begin 
to run westward into the Chambesi, the main head stream of the 
Congo. The wet season dawns and all the rivulets are full. The 
sponge which composes their banks is soggy, so that the feet slip 
and are constantly wet. All around is forest, deep and luxuriant. 
The low tribes of the Babisa extend over the mountain tips and 
partly down the western slopes, carrying along their mean habits 
and, showing the wreck occasioned by the Arab slave merchants. 
They could furnish only mushrooms and elephants to Livingstone, 
and these at fancy prices. 

It was here that Livingstone met with that mishap which con- 
tributed to his untimely end. His two Waiyau guides deserted, 
taking along his medicine chest. He felt as if he had received his 
death sentence, like poor Bishop Mackenzie, forthe forest was damp 
and the rain almost incessant. From this time on, Livingstone's 
constitution was continually sapped by the effect of fever-poison, 
which he was powerless to counteract. 

Livingstone was now clearly on the Congo water-shed and was 
making his way toward the Chambesi. The people were slirewd 
traders, but poorly off for food. Camwood and opal trees consti- 
tuted the forests. There was an abundance of animal life. Push- 
ing his way down the Movushi affluent, he at length reached the 
Chambesi, wending its way toward Lake Bangweola, in a westerly 
direction. It is a full running stream, abounding in hippopotami, 
crocodiles and lizards. A crossing was made with difficulty, and 
the journey lay through extensive flooded flats. The villages were 
novv mostly in the lowlands and surrounded by stockades as a pro- 
tection against wild beasts. Elephants and buffaloes were plenty. 
Lions frequently picked off the villagers, and two men were thus 



492 AFRICAN EESOLTRCES. 

killed at the village of Molemba tlie day before Livingstone's 
arrival. Forests Avere still deep and dark, but the gardens were 
large. At Molemba be met King Chitapangwa, who gave him the 
royal reception described elsewhere in this volume, and presented 
him with a cow, plenty of maize and calabashes and a supply of 
liippopotamus flesh. The king was one of the best natured men 
Livingstone had met. Tlie huts literally swarmed with a bird, 
like the water wag-tail, which seemed to be sacred, as in the 
Bechuana country. Here too the boys were of a lively type and 
fond of sport. They captured smaller game and birds, but were not 
as skillful as the young people of Zulu and Bechuana land, where 
the kiri weapon is handled with so much skill. This kiri is made 
of wood or rhinoceros horn, and varies from a foot to a yard, in 
length, having at one end a knob as large as a hen's egg. It is 
often used in hand to hand conflicts, but is the favorite weapon of 
the hunter, who hurls it, even at game on the wing, with marvellous 
precision. 

Livingstone did not descend into the lowlands on the lower 
Chambesi and about Lake Bangweola, but kept heading northward 
on the skirts of the Congo water-shed, in the direction of Tangan- 
yika, He found about all the streams the spongy soil which so 
impeded his steps, the same alternations of hill and plain, forest and 
jungle. Everywhere were evidences of that gigantic and plentiful 
animal life which characterizes tropical Africa. To this wonderful 
exuberance was now added herds of wild hogs, whose leaders were 
even more formidable looking than the boars of the German 
forests. 

In his course toward Tanganyika he passed the people of Moamba 
who import copper from Kantanga and manufacture it into a very 
line wire for ornaments and animal traps. The Babemba villages 
were passed, a tribe living within close stockades, and more war- 
hke than those to the south. The banana now begins to flourish, 
and herds of cattle denote a pastoral life. Tobacco is grown in 
quantities sufficient lor a home supply. Hunting is carried on by 
means of the hopo hedges, within whose bounds the wild beasts are 
frightened by circles of hunters. 

In the Balungu country, Livingstone found Lake Liemba, amid 



4,94 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

a beautiful landscape. The chief, Kasongo, gave him a royal 
reception. He was gratified here to find men from Tanganyika- 
The lake is at the bottom of a basin Avliose sides are nearly perpen- 
dicular but tree-covered. Down over the rocks pour beautiful 
cascades, and buffaloes, elephants and antelopes wander on the more 
level spots, while lions roar by night. The villages are surrounded 
by luxuriant palm-oil trees, whose bunches of fruit grow so large 
as to require two men to carry them. The Balungu are an excess- 
ively polite people, but chary of information and loth to trade. 
This is because they have been so much raided by the Arabs and- 
native Mazitu. The waters of this lake appeared to drain to the 
north into Tanganyika, but more probably by some other outlet to 
the Congo. Livingstone had never seen elephants so plenty as in 
this section. They came all about his camp and might be seen at 
any time eating reachable foliage, or grubbing lustily at the roots 
of small trees in order to prostrate them so as to get at their stems 
and leaves. 

At Mombo's village were found cotton fields and men and women 
skilled in weaving. Elephants abounded and did much damage to 
the sorghum patches, and corn-safes. Leopards were destructive 
to the goat-herds. Bird life was even more various than on the 
Zambesi. 

Though weakened by fever, Livingstone determined to deflect 
westward toward Lake Moero, on the line of the Lualaba, and in 
the heart of the basin which gathers the Congo waters. The route 
lay through a prairie region, well watered by brisk streams. The 
Wasongo people have herds of cattle, which they house with care, 
and a plentiful supply of milk, butter and cheese. But they were 
frequently disturbed by Arab slave stealers, and their supplies of 
cattle were often raided by hostile neighbors. 

It was here that Livingstone came upon the caravan of Tippoo 
Tib, who even at that date seems to have been a marauding genius, 
, greatly feared by the natives for his craftiness and cruelty. The 
tribe of King Nsama proved to be an interesting one. The people 
are regular featured and good looking, having few of the lineaments 
of their darker coast brethren. The women wear their hair in 
tasteful fashion and are of comely form. King Nsama seemed to 



496 AFEICAN RESOURCES. 

have been a Napoleon in the land, till about the time of Living- 
stone's visit when he had received a Waterloo at the hand of the 
Arabs. 

Livingstone now came to the Ohisera river, a mile wide, and 
flowing into Lake Moero. The land on both sides of the stream 
sloped down to the banks in long, fertile stretches over which 
roamed elephants, buffaloes and zebras. The people were numerous 
and friendly. They find plenty of food in the large game which 
inhabits their district. There was the same plenty of zebras, buf- 
falo and hippopotami over the flat stretch which brought him to 
the Kamosenga river. Crossing this stream he was in the country 
of the Karungu, who live in close stockades and are by nature 
timid. They were chary traders, though they had abundance of 
ivory and their granaries were filled with corn. It was all the 
result of intimidation by the Arab slavers ; and, it must be remem- 
bered that Livingstone was following in the track of one of their 
caravans. 

Bending a little to the southwest the country was well wooded 
and peopled. Large game was still plenty and the natives captured 
an abundant supply of food. The Choma river was reached, 
abounding in hippopotami and crocodiles. The natives fled on the 
approach of the party and it Avas with difficulty that a supply of 
food could be bought. Beyond, and over a long line of hills, the 
natives became less timid. Here the party met a large herd of buf- 
faloes from which a supply of meat was obtained. 

Their course now bore them to the Luao, flanked by granite hills 
which continue all the way to Moero. All the valleys in this part 
of the Congo basin are beautiful, reminding one of English or 
American scenery. The soil is very rich. The people live amid 
plenty, procured from their gardens and the chas6. They would 
be friendly if left alone, but they can hardly be said to lead natural 
hves owing to the frequency and cruelty of Arab raids. 

As the lake is neared, the villages become more frequent. The 
lake is reached at last. It is a large body of water flanked by 
mountains on the east and west. The immediate banks are sand, 
skirted by tropical vegetation, in the midst of which the fishermen 
build their huts. There are many varieties of fish in the waters, 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 497 

and some of tliem are large and fine. At the north end is tlie out- 
flow of the lake into the Lualaba river, whose continuation becomes 
tlie Congo. The inflow at the south- end, Livingstone calls the 
Luapula, which name, lie sajs, it keeps up to Lake Bangweola. 
Beyond that it is the Chambesi whose head-waters he had already 
crossed. West of the lake is the Eua country. The people about 
the lake are Babemba, timid to a fault and hard to trade with. 

Though reduced by fever, the infatuation of travel was so strong 
in Livingstone, that he turned southerly along the lake and struck 
for the unknown regions, about its southern end. He crossed an 
important tributary, the Kalongosi, whose waters were literally 
alive with fish from the lake, seeking places to spawn. South of 
this stream the people are the Limda, not friendly disposed, yet 
not hostile. They are of the true negro type, and are great fisher- 
men and gatherers of salt on the lake. The forests are not of rank 
growth, and the wood is chiefly bai'k-cloth and gum-opal, the lat- 
ter exuding its gum in large quantities, which enters the ground 
and is preserved in large cakes for the use of future generations. 

The streams are now very frequent, and difiicult to cross when 
swollen. After ci'ossing the Limda he was in the Cassembe coun- 
try, which is very rich and populous, growing the finest of palm-oil 
and ground-nuts. The capital village is in the centre of a plain, 
and is more a Mohammedan than a native lown. As neither goats, 
sheep nor cattle thrive, the people depend on fish and vegetables 
for food. Every hut had a cassava garden about it, and honey and 
coffee were plenty, as were maize, beans and nuts. 

The Cassembe, take their name from the chief or ruler, who is a 
Pharaoh, or general, called the " Cassembe," the ninth generation of 
which was on the throne when Livingstone was there. He gave 
him a royal reception, differing in many respects from all others 
which he had received. Cassembe had a dwarf, captured from 
some of the northern tribes, who figured as clown of the occasion. 
Then his wife appeared as a conspicuous mistress of ceremonies, 
preceded by men brandishing battle axes, beating on hollow 
instruments, and yelling at the crowd to clear the way. She was a 
comely looking personage of light color and regular features. In 
her hand wei'e two enormous pipes filled ready for smoking. This 



498 AFRICAN EESOUECES, 

procession was followed by tlie Cassembe, whose smile of welcome 
would have been captivating but for tlie fact that he was accom- 
panied by his executioner, bearing a broad Limda sword and a 
large pair of scissors for cropping the ears of offenders. ^The queen 
is a thorough agriculturist, and pays particular attention to her fields 
of cassava, sweet-potatoes, maize, sorghum, millet, ground-nuts and 
cotton. Tlie people as a whole are rough mannered and positively 
brutal among themselves. Livingstone spent a month among 
them, before he could get an escort to take him through the 
swamps to the southern end of Moero, which he was anxious to 
explore further. 

The Cassembe, like many other tribes on the head waters of the 
Congo, procure copper ore from Kantanga, on the west, and work 
it into bracelets, anklets and fine wire for baskets and traps. They 
have been visited time and again by the Portuguese. By and by 
Livingstone bade Cassembe farewell and pushed for the southern 
and western shores of the lake. He took views from many points 
on the Rua mountains and approached its shores at many points. 
At every shore approach there was a profusion of moisture and of 
tropical forests abounding in buffaloes and elephants, while the open 
spaces gave views of pasturing zebras. The latter had not yet 
become an object of chase as in the lands south of the Zambesi, 
whf^re they give great sport to both native and foreign hunters and 
where so much of the larger game has been swej)t away by incon- 
siderate sportsmen. Lions and leopards were also plenty, and the 
camps had to be guarded nightly against them. The jiopulation 
about the lake is everywhere' dense, and the fish supply limitless. 
Livintistone found the lake, at his various points of observation from 
the Rua heights, to be from 30 to 60 miles wide, and the natives 
claimed that it was larger than Tanganyika. They do not pretend 
to cross the lake in boats, deeming it too long and dangerous a jour- 
ney, in a country where storms are frequent and the waters are apt 
to be lashed into fury by the winds. 

The circuit of Lake Moero, the almost continuous wading of 
swamps and crossing of swollen streams, the arrival at Cassembe 
again and the expression of a determination to go still further south 
into the swampy regions, to discover Lake Bemba^ or Bangweola, 



500 AFRICAN BESOURCES. 

instead of back to Tanganjnka, where rest and medicine could be 
bad, caused the desertion of Livingstone's entire traveling force, 
except bis always faitbful Cbuma and Susi. But having attained 
the consent of Casse'mbe to proceed, and having re-equipped bini- 
self as best he could, he started for Bangweola, keeping parallel 
with the Luapula,but a day's march away from its swamps. Even 
then, the crossing of the frequent tributaries made his journey tedi- 
ous and dangerous. It was through a region of hill and vale, for- 
est and plain, of varied geological formation. At many points he 
came upon developments of iron ore, which the natives worked 
and he had no doubt that this-valuable mineral existed in abun- 
dance in this region. It ought to be remembered that the Kan- 
tanoa copper region, whence all the eastern coast draws a supply, 
lies but a few days' journey west of the Luapula, and in this part of 
the Congo basin. 

The people were the Banyamwezi, smart traders and given to 
lying like Greeks. They are populous, but having been raided by- 
the Mazitu, many of their villages were deserted. Passing through 
their country, the land becomes flat and forest covered, and so con- 
tinues all the way to Bangweola. The streams are all banked by 
the juicy sponge, before described, which make traveling so treach- 
erous and tiresome. All the forests are infested with lions and 
leopards, necessitating the greatest care at night. 

It was January 18th, 1868, when Livingstone first set eyes on 
Lake Bangweola. The country around the lake is all flat and free 
from trees, except the mosikisi, which is spared for its dense foliage 
and fatty oil. The people have canoes and are expert fishermen. 
They are numerous, especially on the large islands of the lake. 
The variety of fish is numerous and some are taken which measure 
four feet in length. The bottom of the lake is sandy, and the 
shores reedy. During windy weather the waters become quite 
rough and dangerous. The islanders have herds of goats and 
flocks of fowls, and are industrious and peaceable, not given to curi- 
osity, but sitting unconcernedly and weaving their cotten or knit- 
ting their nets, as a stranger passes by. According to Livingstone's 
estimate this splendid body of water is some 150 miles long by 80 
broad. The Lokinga mountains, extending from the southeast to 



AFlllCAN- RESOLTRCES. 501 

tlie southwest are visible, and this range joins the Mokone range, 
west of Kantanga, which range is the water-shed between the Zam- 
besi and Congo basins. 

The people are still the Banyamwezi. Besides being skilled in 
weaving cotton and in net-making, they are expert copper workers. 
Tn forging they use a cone-shaped hammer, without a handle. 
They use bellows, made of goat skin and wood. With these they 
smelt large ingots of copper in a pot, and pour it into moulds, 
which give a rough shape to the article they wish to forge. 

Livingstone's observations in this section taught him that there 
was no such thing as a rainy zone, to account for the periodical rise 
of rivers like the Nile and Congo. From May to October is a 
comparatively dry season, and from October to May almost every 
day gave a thunder shower, but there is no such continuous down 
pour as has been imagined by meteorologists in Europe. He 
accounts for the humidity of both the Congo and Zambesi water- 
sheds, by the meeting of the easterly and westerly winds in that 
section, thus precipitating the evaporations of both oceans in mid- 
Africa. It is certain that the Congo does not get its yellow hue 
from its head waters, for all the streams run clear even when 
swoolen. The sponges, or bogs, which are so frequent are ac- 
counted for by the fact that some six to eight feet beneath the 
surface is a formation of sand which cakes at the bottom, thus 
holding up the saturated soil above and preventing the escape of 
the water. The same is true of large sections on the Zambesi, 
• and especially in the Kalahari Desert, though the vegetable mould 
is wanting on the top. In that desert wells must be dug only so 
deep. If water does not come, they must be dug in another place. 
To puncture the substratum of caked sand is to make an escape 
for the water, and create a dearth in an entire drainage system. 
A peculiarity of the sponge everywhere is that it absorbs so 
much water as to keep the streams from flooding till long after the 
shower. Then they assume what would be an unaccountable flow, 
but for knowledge of the fact that it has taken several hours for 
the rain-fall to penetrate them. When traveling on the Limda, 
Livingstone had great trouble with his ox teams, which became 
invariably bogged in the sponges, and when they saw the clear 



AFRICAN" EESOURCES. 503 

sand in the centre of the streams, they usually plunged head- 
foremost for it, leaving nothing in sight but their tails. 

Livingstone's return from Bangweola to Casembe gave him no 
opportunity for observation, owing to the fact that the tribes were 
at war with one another, instigated by the Arabs, who were 
gathering a rich crop of slaves. Yet this misfortune was com- 
pensated in part by a return of his deserters to his service, on 
his arrival at Oassembe, thereby enabling him to continue his 
northward journey more comfortably, and to run the gauntlet of 
the contending tribes with greater safety. 

His journc}'' to Tanganyika, arrival at Ujiji, sickness there, 
receipt of welcome stores from the coast, slow recovery, make a sad 
history, but does not add to our knowledge of the natural features 
and resources of the Congo region. However, our interest is again 
awakened in this heroic adventurer when we find him once more 
on his feet and resolved to visit the land of the Manyuema, off to the 
west and on the Lualaba, in the very heart of the Upper Congo 
valley, and the stamping ground of the now celebrated Tippoo Tib. 
The Manyuema country was then unknown, and Livingstone went in 
the trail of the first of those Arab hordes which ever visited it, but 
whose repeated visits in quest of ivory and slaves have carried 
murder, fire, theft and destruction to a once undisturbed, if not 
happy people. 

The journey lay from Kasenge, on the west coast of Tanganyika, 
near its middle, in a north-west direction to the great market town 
of Nyangwe, on the Lualaba, or Upper Congo. He found the 
route hilly but comparatively open. Villages were frequent and 
the natives friendly, till the Manyuema themselves were reached. 
There was an abundance of elephants and buffaloes, which kept 
them supplied with. meat. Wiiere forests grew, the trees were of 
gigantic proportions, and very dense, affording a complete escape 
for wild animals when exhausted or crippled in the chase. The 
native huts were of a superior kind, with sleeping apartments raised 
from the ground. The soil was fertile, and tlie cultivation of vege- 
tables was general. On the route they came into the region of the 
oil-palm, which does not flourish eastward of this, but assumes a 
more gigantic growth as the western coast is approached. 



504 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

A little more than midway between Tanganyika and Nyangwe, 
is Bambarre, a flourisliing village, surrounded by gardens, which 
the men help to cultivate, though all the other duties of farm and 
house are imposed upon the women, who are actual " hewers of 
wood and drawers of water " for the tribe. They made willing 
carriers, and are of comely form. Here the soko is believed to be 
H cliarm for rain. One was caught for m.eteorological pur- 
poses, with the result that the captor Lad the ends of two 
fingers and toes bitten off. Livingstone saw the nest of a soko, or 
gorilla, and pronounced it a poor arcliitectural contrivance. A young 
soko, however, he regarded as the most wonderful object in nature, 
so ugly as to excite astonishment, yet so quaint as to stimulate 
curiosity. Like the kangaroo, it leaves one in doubt whether 
repulsion or attraction is uppermost in the mind when viewing it. 
In the vicinity are hot springs, and earthquakes are common, pass- 
ing from east to west. The tribes of Bambarre hold the Many- 
uema in great fear, regarding tliem as of man eating propensity. 

Leaving Bambarre, Livingstone was soon in the extensive country 
of the famed Manyuema, a tribe, or rather an entire people, hardly 
surpassed for size and power by even the Zulus, Macololos, Ugandas 
or Niam-Niams, a tribe whose name is one of terror far below 
Stanley Falls and far above Nyangwe, and wliose unamiable quali- 
ties have of late years been greatly increased by the hold which 
Tippoo Tib, the Arab imperator on Lualaba, has gotten upon them. 
Livingstone's journey toward their capital was through the most 
remarkable country he had seen in Central Africa. He had elephant 
and rhinocei-os meat of his own shooting, and plenty to trade to the 
natives for other dainties. The land is a beautiful succession of 
hills and dales. The villages are frequent and perched on the slopes 
so as to secure quick drainage. The streets run east and west in 
order that the blazing sun may lick up the moisture. The dwel- 
lings are in perfect line, with low thatched roofs, and every here 
and there are larger establishments with grounds, which answer 
for public assemblages. The walls are of beaten clay, and the 
insides are cosy and clean. The clay walls are so compact as to 
stand for ages, and frequently men return, after a site has been 
deserted for generations, to repair and re-occupy their ancestral 




A YOUNG SOKO. 



506 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

abodes. The people practice the rite of circumcision, al'ter the man- 
ner of the Abyssinians or Hebrews. The women are good house- 
keepers, and preserve their food from tlie ants, which are in great 
numbers and of many varieties, by slinging it from the ceiling of 
their huts in earthen pots or neatly made baskets. 

Palms crown the heights of all the mountains and hills, and the 
forests, usually of a width of five miles between the groups of 
villages, are indescribable for their luxuriance and beauty, Chmb- 
ers fold themselves gracefully over the gigantic trees, wild fruit 
abounds, and monkeys and brilliant birds skip and flit from bough to 
bough, with continuous chatter and chirp. The soil is excessively 
rich and the people cultivate largely, even though they are much 
separated by feuds and dense forest reaches. Their maize bends its 
fruit stalk round like a hook. They insert poles in the ground for 
fences, and these soon sprout making substantial and impervious 
hedges. Climbing plants are trained from pole to pole, and to these 
are suspended the ears of corn to dry. This upright granary forms 
a wall around the entire village, and the women take down corn at 
their will and distribute it to the men. The women are very naked. 
They are thrifty, however, and may be seen on any market day 
carrying their produce to the villages on their heads, or slung in 
receptacles over their shoulders. No women could be fonder of 
beads and ornaments than they, and Livingstone found them easy 
to trade with, when at all friendly. 

The receptions Livingstone met with in the various villages, as 
he neared the Lualaba, were as various as the humors of the people. 
Some received him gladly, others with suspicion, and still others 
with rudeness, saying, " If you have food at home, why come you 
so far and spend your beads to buy it here? " On the Luamo, a 
tributary of the Lualaba, two hundred yards broad and very deep, 
the chiefs proved so hostile as to refuse to lend their canoes to the 
party to cross over. The women were particularly outspoken, and 
claimed that the party were identical with the cruel strangers 
(Arabs) who had lately robbed them. At length the warriors of 
the place surrounded the party, with their spears and huge wooden 
shields, and marched them bodily out of the district. 

Wherever the wood has been cleared in this section, the soil 



AFRICAN HESOUECES. 507 

immediately brings a crop of gigantic grasses. These are burned 
annually. Livingstone's way now deflected to the north, through 
kindlier villages, separated by damp forests. The rainy season was 
on and the streams were all swollen. Evidences of large game were 
all around him. He passed an elephant trap, which was made of a 
log of heavy wood twenty feet long, with a hole at one end through 
which a vine passed to suspend it. At the other end a lance of 
wood, four feet long, is inserted. A latch string runs to the ground, 
which, when touched by tlie animal's foot, causes the log to fall, 
and its great weight drives the lance into the animal's body. 

The people here were more friendly and very curious as they 
never had seen a white man before. They have a terrible dread of 
the Arabs, and strange to say the Arabs feared them as much, for 
nothing could convince an Arab that the Manyuema are not canni- 
bals. It must be remembered that Livingstone wrote some years 
ago and before the Arabs acquired supremacy over these natives. 
It is a peculiarity of African ti^ibes that nothing can exceed the 
terror inspired by a reputation in another tribe for cannibalism. It 
was a common thing on the Shire and Zambesi, for Livingstone to 
hear the natives there speak of tribes far away to the north — like 
diseases, they are always far away — who eat human bodies, and on 
every occasion the fact was related with the utmost horror and dis- 
gust. Livingstone never took stock in these stories, nor in the 
wilder ones of the Arabs, and he mentions no authenticated case 
of cannibalism in all his volumes. It is more than likely that 
African cannibalism exists only in the imagination of persons who 
prefer sensation to fact. 

Livingstone seems to have become bewildered on this northward 
journey, and crossed his track with the intention of making more 
directly for the Lualaba. Though he found the people kind and 
the country indescribably rich in vegetation, the wa}?- was difficult 
owing to the softness of the ground and the swollen streams. He 
however succeeded, with much hardship, in getting back to the 
route direct from Bambarre to the river. On this route the villages 
were almost continuous, as many as nine being passed in a 
single day. The people were kindly disposed and very curious. 
They brought food willingly, traded eagerly, preferring bracelets to 



508 AFHICAN EESOURCES. 

beads, and in one village he was received bj a band, composed of 
calabashes. Goat and sheep herds were plenty, tended mostly by 
children, who lived among and loved their charges as if they were 
human beings. 

A grass burning resulted in the capture of four sokos by the 
natives, besides other animals. The full grown soko would do well 
to stand for a picture of the devil. One of them, it appears, was a 
voung one which gave Livingstone an opportunity for study. His 
light-yellow face showed off" his ugly whiskers and faint apology 
for a beard. The forehead, villainously low, with high ears, was 
well in the back-ground of a great dog mouth. The teeth were 
slightly human but the canines showed the beast by their large 
development. The hands, or rather fingers, were like those of the 
natives. The flesh of the feet was yellow. The eagerness with 
which the Manyuema devoured it left the impression thai eating 
sokos was a good way to get up a reputation for cannibalism. 

The soko sometimes kills the leopard by seizing both paws and 
biting them, but often gets disembowled in the attempt. Lions 
kill sokos with a bound, tear them to pieces, but seldom eat them. 
They live in communities of about ten, each male having a single 
wife. Interference with a wife is visited by the resentment of all 
the other males, who catch and cuff the offender till he screams for 
mercy. 

Livingstone was now sorely detained by sickness and the deser- 
tion of his carriers. The delay gave liim opportunity to note the 
cliaracteristics of the Manyuema country with more particularity. 
It is not a healthy country, not so much from fever as from debility 
of the whole system induced by damp, cold and indigestion. This 
general weakness is ascribed by some to the free use of maize as 
food, which produces weakness of the bowels and choleraic purg- 
ing. Rheumatism is common and cuts the natives off". The Arabs 
fear this disease, and when attacked come to a stand-still till it is 
cured. Tape worm is frequent, and the natives know no remedy 
for it. 

The natives have wonderful stores of ivory which the Arabs are 
eager for. They cultivate the ground with the hoe, but their hoe- 
ing is httle better than scraping the ground, and cutting through 



AFRICAN" RESOURCES. 509 

the roots of the grasses. This careless husbandry leaves the roots of 
inaize, ground-nuts, sweet-potatoes and sorghum to find their way 
into the rich, soft soil, which they succeed in doing. The ground- 
nuts and cassava hold their own against the grasses for years. 
Bananas grow vigorously on the cleared spaces. 

The great want of the Manyuema is national life. Of this they 
have none. Each head man is -independent of each other. Of 
industry they have no lack and the villagers are orderly toward each 
other, but they go no further. If a man of another district ventures 
among them, he is not regarded with more favor as a Manyuema 
than one of a herd of buffaloes is by the rest, and on the slightest 
provocation he is likely to be killed. They buy their wives from 
one another. A pretty girl brings ten goats. The new wife is led 
to the new home by the husband, where five days are spent, then 
she is led back to her home for five days, after which she comes to 
her new home permanently. Many of the women are handsome, 
having perfect forms and limbs. The conviction of Livingstone, 
after his experience with these people, was that if a man goes with 
a good natured and civil tongue, he may pass through the worst 
people in Africa unharmed. He also draws a fine line between the 
unmixed and mixed African races, by a narrative of experience on 
the Shir^ river. One of a mixed race stepped into the water to 
swim off to a boat, and was seized by a crocodile. The poor fellow 
held up his hands and screamed for help. Not a man went to his 
help, but allowed him to perish. When at Senna, in the Makololo 
country, a woman was seized by a crocodile. Instantly four natives 
rushed unbidden and rescued her, though they knew nothing about 
her. These incidents are typical of the two races. Those of mixed 
blood possess the vices of both races and the virtues of neither. 

The fact that there is no supreme chief among the Manyuema, 
makes it difficult to punish murder except by war, and the feud is 
made worse, being transmitted from generation to generation. This 
state of affairs, when it came to be understood by such a crafty 
statesman as Tippoo Tib, contributed to his victory over the people, 
and that peculiar sovereignty which he exercises. 

Livingstone got away from this place of confinement, and 
crossed the Mamohela, on his journey to Nyangwe. The country 



510 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 



was a fioe grassy plain watered bj numerous rills, and skirted by 
mountains on either side, on wliicli perched the neat villages of the 
natives. Then forests intervene of even more luxuriant growth 
than be^-e, to be again succeeded by plains. The people seem to 
grow more stately and shapely, the women being singularly perfect 
in hands, feet and limbs, and of light brown color, but all with the 
orifices of their noses enlarged by excessive snuff taking. The 




MANYUEMA WOMEN. 

humor of the villagers depended on how lately they had been raided 
by the Arabs. They seemed also to grow more clever in art, for 
now many forges were seen in active operation where iron was 
being shaped into spears and utensils. 

At length the Lua"1aba is reached at Nyangwe, the capital of t!;e 
Muiiyueiiia country, and the greatest market town in Central Africa. 



AFRICAN EESOUECES. 511 

Long before Livingstone reached it lie met upon the route hundreds 
of women wending tlieir way thither with their marketing in baskets 
on their heads or slung in receptacles on their shoulders. As they 
trudged cheerfully along full of thought as to what they would 
receive in exchange or what they would buy, he could not help con- 
trasting their condition with that of the women bent on alike errand 
in his own country, where the labor might be the same, but where 
there was happy exemption from such scenes of bloodshed as 
he was forced to witness while there. But as these have been 
already narrated the reader is here spared their horrible review. 

The Manyuema prefer to do all their business in open market. 
If one says, " Come, sell me that fowl, or cloth," the reply is, " Come 
to the market place." The values there are more satisfactory and 
the transaction is open. The people had a fear of Livingstone, 
because they could not disassociate him from the Arab half-castes 
who had brought upon them untold misery. 

He found the Lualaba at Nyangvve to be twenty feet deep in mid 
stream and subject to annual overflow just like the Nile — a mighty 
river, he says, three thousand yards wide, with steep banks and full 
of islands. The current runs at the rate of two miles an hour. His 
greatest trouble was to get a canoe to take him across the river. 
Tlie natives thought his request for a large canoe, with which he 
intended to explore the river, meant war upon them, so they sent 
only small ones, capable of carrying two or three men, and which 
were entirely unfit for his purposes. The Manyuama on the left 
bank of the Lualaba, opposite JSTyangwe, are called Bagenya. There 
are salt springs in their district, and they manufacture the salt for 
the ISTyangwe market, by boiling the brine. 

The salutations of the Manyuema are the same as those of the 
Bechuana people of the Kalihari desert, and indeed many of 
their customs reminded Livingstone of what he had seen south 
of the Zambesi, among the respective tribes. The natives of 
Nyangwe denied to Livingstone the stories of cannibalism that had 
been circulated about them. They never eat human flesh, unless it 
be the bodies of enemies killed in war, and not then through any 
liking for the flesh, which is salty and unpalatable, but because it 
makes them " dream of the dead man," and, as it were, kill them 



512 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

over in their sleep. This a very comfortable way of getting a 
second vengeance, and is nearly allied to the reasoning which is at 
the bottom of cannibalism in the South Sea Islands, to wit, belief 
that the blood of a brave and fallen enemy transplants his bravery 
to the veins of him who partakes of it. Caimibalism, for the sheer 
love of eating human flesh, don't exist in the world. It is a creation 
of the imagination, a product of the tale telling spirit, and is not fair 
to the pagan races. 

Livingstone seems never to tire of praising the physical propor- 
tions of the Manyuema and says, he would back a company of them, 
for shape of head and physical foi'm, male and female, against the 
whole Anthroi)ological Society. He was surprised at the extent 
of country embraced in the Arab incursions. On questioning the 
slaves brought to Nyangvve by these marauders, he found thera 
members of tribes far up and down the Lualaba, and westward of it ■ 
many days' journey. The copper of Kantanga reaches the Nyangwe 
market, and is readily bought up at high figures, in barter. 

The great market of Nyangwe is held every third day. It is a 
bnsy scene, and every trader is in dead earnest. Venders of fish 
run about with potsherds full of snails and small fishes, or with 
smoked fishes strung on twigs, to exchange for cassava, potatoes 
grain, bananas, flour, palm-oil, fowls, salt, pepper, and various vege- 
tables. Each is bent on exchanging food for relishes, and the asser- 
tions of quality are as strong as in a civilized mart. The sweat 
stands out on their faces, cocks crow briskly from the baskets, and 
pigs squeal from their inclosares. Iron utensils, traps and cages are 
exchanged for cloth, which is put away for carriage in their capa- 
cious baskets. They deal fairly, and wlien differences arise, they 
apjieal to each other and settle things readily on a basis of natural 
justice. With so much food changing hands among a throng 
which frequently numbers 3,000 souls, much benefit is derived, for 
some of them come twenty-five miles afoot. The men flaunt about 
in a nervous and excited way, bat the women are the hardest workers. 
The potters hold up their wares and beat them with their knuckles 
to prove their quality by the sound. It is alia scene of fine natural 
acting— the eagerness with which they assert the vain e of their 
wares, and the withering looks of disgust when the buyer sees fit to 



AFEIOAN REvSOURCES. 513 

reject the proffereu article. Little girls run about selling cups of 

water to the thirsty traders, just as lemonade or ice-water boys ply 

t,heir art in London daring a procession. They are close buyers and 

'^yllers, prone to exaggerate tiie merits of their articles, yet satisfied 

(Then a bargain is clinched. Honesty is a rule, and when anything 

'5 stolen among the Manyueraa, they know that it is the work of 

he Arab slaves. 

The Manyuema children do not creep as white children do, but 
begin by putting forward one foot and using one knee. The fish of 
the Lualaba are of the same variety as in Lake Nyassa. Cakes 
made of ground-nuts are a common fare, as on the west coast. All 
Livingstone's persuasions could not induce the natives to hire him 
a canoe large enough to navigate the river with. The Arabs had 
inflamed their imaginations by painting him as an enemy in dis- 
guise, but their real purpose was to keep control of all the larger 
boats themselves to assist in their river forays. Baffled by both 
natives and Arabs, and after waiting for many weary weeks at 
Nyangwe, he resolved to return to Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika. 

His return journey was a repetition of the sights and scenes 
already described, varied of course by new opportunities for observ- 
ing natural features and events. On neai^ing the Mamohela, he 
passed through a most populous region, with well constructed 
villages, abounding in goats, fowls, dogs, and pigs, with vegetable 
food of every tropical variety in plenty, while palm toddy, tobacco 
and bangue (Indian hemp) furnished them the dainties. The soil 
was so fruitful that a mere scraping with a hoe rendered a generous 
return. The forests afibrded elephants, zebras, buffaloes and ante- 
lopes, and in the streams were abundance of fish. The antelope 
species in Africa, is rich in variety, stalwart in form, and heavy 
horned. Those of the Chobe river are dappled in color and very 
beautiful. The quichobo is a rare species, and is more of a goat 
than an antelope. It has amphibious qualities, and when frightened 
will jump into the water and remain beneath the surface till danger 
has passed. 'At this point Livingstone was given a secret which 
would have been worth a fortune to him had he possessed it in time 
to have saved the camels, mules and buffaloes with which he started 
on this journey from the coast. It was to the effect that lion's fat 
33 




TYPES OF AFRICAN ANTELOPES, 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 515 

was a cure for tlie bite of the tsetse fly. As lie had never seen n 
fat lion, he was incredulous, lill assured that the Basango Lons, in 
common with all other beasts, actually took on fat. A vial of the 
precious stufl" was handed him, a proof of the fact tliat such a thing 
as lion fat did really exist. The cattle raising tribes of the plains 
west of Tanganyika, know the virtue of this ointment, and use it 
when they drive their herds toward the markets on the eastern 
coast. 

Sickness on the rest of the route to Tanganyika impaired his 
powers of observation and description. In general he found the 
country beautiful and fertile, but much disturbed by raiders. On 
his arrival at Tanganyika he was ferried across to Ujiji. Sick and 
in despair, his faithful Susi came rushing at the top of his speed 
one morning and gasped out, " An Englishman ! " This was 
Stanley, on his mission of rescue. This meeting, and how the two 
explorers navigated Tanganyika, together with other things that 
went to make up one of the most remarkable interviews in history, 
Hi'e described elsewhere in this volume. 

One would have thought that Livingstone could not fail to 
accompany Stanley home. But he did not, and, weakened as he 
was by disease, proclaimed to his rescuer a programme which 
embraced a journey round the south end of Tanganyika, southward 
across the Chambesi, round the south end of Lake Bangweola, due 
west to the mythical ancient fountains and thence to the copper- 
mines of Kantanga. All this, he says, " to certify that no other 
sources of the Nile can come from the south without being seen by 
me." What heroism was here, yet in his condition, what infatna- 
tion! Poor man, deluded, self-sacrificial traveler, illy-advised 
adventurer! All this long journey, from the time he struck the 
Chambesi, months and months before, to Moero, to Tanganyika, 
to Bambare, to the Lualaba and Nyangwe, had been through the 
water system of the Ujiper Congo, and had nothing at all to do with 
the Nile sources, and now, going back to Bangweola and to the 
Chambesi for the purpose of contributing further to knowledge of 
the ultimate Nile sources, discovery of which he regarded as worth 
the sacrifice of his life, he was but stamping through the Congo 
basin again, and revealing the sources of ? river which found an out- 



516 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

let in the Atlantic. But sucli were the uncertainties wliich con- 
fronted all these early African explorers. Even Stanley was 
uncertain whither the Lualaba would lead when he embarked 
on its waters, and although is volume furnished proof that it could 
not be the Nile, he was still prepared, from its northern course, to 
accept it as such, till it took its westward turn and straightened out 
for its Atlantic exit. 

Writing on African beliefs, he says : " The African's idea seems 
to be that they are under control of a power superior to them- 
selves—apart from and invisible; good, but frequently evil and 
dangerous. This may have been the earliest religious feeling of 
dependence on Divine power, without any conscious feeling of its 
nature. Idols may have come in to give definite ideas of superior 
power, and the primitive faith or impression obtained by Eevela- 
tion seems to have mingled with their idolatry, without any sense 
of incongruity. The origin of the primitive faith in Africans and 
others seems always to have been a Divine influence on their dark 
minds, which has proved persistent in all ages. One portion of 
primitive belief — the continued existence of departed spirits — seems 
to have no connection whatever with dreams, or, as we should say, 
with ' ghost seeing,' for great agony is felt in prospect of bodily 
mutilation, or burning of the body after death, as that is believed 
to render a return to one's native land impossible. Tliey feel as if 
it would shut them off from all intercourse with relatives after 
death. They would lose the power of doing good to those once 
loved, and evil to those who deserved their revenge. Take the case 
of the slaves in the yoke, singing songs of hate and revenge against 
those who sold them into slavery. They thought it right so to 
harbor hatred, though most of the party had been sold for crimes — 
adultery, stealing etc,— which they knew to be sins." 

In Central Africa one is struck with the fact that children have 
so few games. Life is a serious business, and amusement is derived 
from imitating the vocations of their parents— hut building, making 
httle gardens, bows and arrows, shields and spears. In Southern 
Africa boys are very ingenious little fellows and have several games. 
They shoot biixls with bows and arrows, practice with the kiri, and 
teach linnets to sing. They are expert at making guns and traps 



518 AFRICAN RESOURCES. 

for small animals, and in making and using bird-lime. They make 
play guns with a trigger which go off with a spring and have cotton 
fluff as smoke. They shoot locusts very cleverly with these toy 
guns. 

Desperate as Livingstone's last undertaking seemed, he was well 
equipped for it by the receipt of fifty-seven porters sent up from 
Zanzibar by Stanley and a supply of cattle and donkeys. He 
found that much cotton was cultivated on the shoies of Tanganyika, 
that the highlands sui'rounding the lake are cut into deep ravines, 
and that game was plenty everywhere, ele])hants, buffaloes, water 
buck, rhinoceri, hippopotami, zebi'as. The lake puts off' numerous 
arms or bays into the mountains, some of which are of great width, 
cutting off' travel entirely except at a distance from its shores. 

Even before he had rounded tlje southern end of Tanganyika, he 
was out of heart with the experiment of using donkeys as carriers. 
He had all along contended that this hardy animal could be taken 
through regions infested with the deadly tsetse fly, even though 
horses, mules, dogs and oxen might perish. But he, for a second 
time, witnessed the death of one donkey after another from the bites 
of the African pest-fly. His cattle fared somewhat better, this time, 
but even they proved a poor means of keeping up a food supply, 
being apt to wander, subject to swellings from fly-stings, and a con- 
stant invitation to raiders. True, he escaped this last calamity, 
but other travelers in different parts of Africa have been less 
fortunate, as their accounts show. 

As he passed down into the section which furnishes the head- 
streams of Lake Moero, the rains descended in volumes, the streams 
were swollen, the people were unkind, and travel became dismal 
and difficult, beyond any former experience. He was troubled with 
sickness and' the desertion of his men. A leopard broke into 
his camp, at night, and attacked a woman carrier. Her screams 
frightened his last donkey and it ran away. The slave traders had 
stirred up the villages, so that trade for the necessaries of life was 
always difficult. He found the country a succession of hills and 
plains, forests and high grasses, with every evidence of great 
fertility. Dura, or the flour of sorghum seed, furnishes the staple 
food. His narrative of the streams he crossed is bewildering, but 



Ai'RlcAN Resources. 519 

it sliows tlie great plentitude of tliese Congo sources and quite 
reconciles one to the mighty volume of that magnificent river. 
With such an abundance of lively sources it must very largely 
defy active Equatorial evaporation and be at all seasons a surely 
navigable and valuable commercial water-way. 

The sponges were now all full from the continuous rains, so that 
a streani 100 feet wide, had to be approached through a bog of 
twice that width. His last cow died, and he was wholly depen- 
dent on the natives for food. Pushing on, and bearing gently west- 
ward, he came into the immediate region of Bangweola. All 
around was flat, water-covered plain, alive with elephants and 
other large game. Every camping place was infested with ants. 
Life was miserable for the entire party, and Livingstone himself 
was so weak as to be incapable of passing the river and swamps, 
except by being carried. 

He entered the lake with canoes, and pushed off to one of its 
numerous islands, or at least what he supposed to be an island, 
though it afterwards turned out to be only a rise in the plain which 
surrounds the true lake, and which was then entirely water-covered. 
The Basiba people occupy the northern shore of the lake. They 
proved to be hospitable and supplied plenty offish and fowls with 
an occasional sheep. At every village a party of male and female 
drummers and dancers turned up, who gave music and exhibitions 
in dancing. 

Crossing the mouth of the Chambesi in canoes, and entering the 
Kabinga country, he found a cattle raising section, though the 
cattle are wild. Elephants were plenty and very destructive of 
crops. The entire country about the lake was reedy and flooded. 
Many of the depressions in the plain were now arms of the lake, 
extending for twenty or thirty miles and so wide. as to be seen 
across with difficulty. The journey now was mostly by canoes, 
and the camps were on elevations in the plain, which were now 
islands. Lions made the night hideous with their roaring. Fisli 
and other food was abundant. The mouth of river after river 
was passed as it debouched into the lake. Livingstone grows 
weaker with every days' exertion. It is only by the most herculean 
effort that he reaches Chitambo on the south side of the lake. 



520 AFRICAN KESOUt^CES. 

His ability to observe and note has passed away. His power as a 
traveler and explorer is gone. Death seized him in Chitambo's 
village, and his faithful Chuma and Susi -bere his remains to the 
coast for transport to England. 

We know of the Charnbesi, of Lake Bangweola, of the Luapula, 
of Lake Moero, of the Lualaba, and of this magnificent section of 
the Upper Congo basin, from Livingstone. True, we know little of 
it, because the heroic traveler was sick unto death while threading 
the mazes of forest and plain which give character to the section. 
But he has given such an inkling of its wonderful resources of soil, 
animal life and people as to create fresh interest in the region 
and furnish supplementary evidence to all that has been said or 
dreamed of the wealth of the Congo basin. 

The last of the sections into which Stanley divides the Congo 
basin is that of Tanganyika. This great lake is 391 miles long 
and 24 broad, with an area of 9400 square miles. The territory 
about the lake, belonging to the Congo water system, embraces 
98,000 square miles. It is thickly populated, and contains proba- 
bly 2,500,000 persons. The lake itself is 2750 feet above the sea, 
and it is bounded by mountains, north and south, which rise from 
1500 to 2500 feet above its surface. The slopes of these mountains 
lead to lofty plateaus, which are fertile, densely peopled, and well 
covered with cattle herds. The natives are of a superior type, 
peaceably inclined and much attached to their pastoral occupations, 
and to the raising of sorghum, millet and maize. At various towns 
on the lake are large communities of Arab traders, the most noted 
being at Ujiji, where Stanley met Livingstone on his celebrated 
journey of rescue. The International Association supports a flour- 
ishing mission oh the east side of the lake, and others have been 
recently founded. 

In general this section supports the natural products indigenous 
to the Congo basin, though the oil-palm is not seen east of Ujiji. 
Around the lake the natives make a larger use of the cereals, than 
further west, where the banana and manioc grow more luxuriantly. 
There is hardly any finer market in Africa than that of Ujiji, where 
may be seen for sale an intermixture of products such as would do 
credit to a first-class city, were it not for the fact that human beines 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. 521 

often constitute one of the articles of merchandise. On any propi- 
tious market day may be seen a full supply of maize, millet, beans, 
ground-nuts, sugar-cane, wild-fruit, palm-oil, bananas, plantains, 
honey, ivory, goats, sheep, cattle, fowls, fish, tobacco, nets, copper 
and iron ware, cloth, barks, hoes, spears, arrows, swords, etc., etc. 
On the northwest side of this section, at Uvira, are iron works of 
no mean proportions, whose products are iron wire and various iron 
utensils for both household and agricultural purposes. 

In his recapitulation of resources, Stanley estimates the Congo 
basin to contain as follows : — 





Area in square 




Length of 


Sections. 


miles. 


Population. 


Navigation. 


Lower Congo, 


33,000 


297,000 


110 


Upper Congo, 


1,090,000 


43,884,000 


5,250 


Lualaba, 


246,000 


4,920,000 


1,100 


Cliambesi, 


46,000 


460.000 


400 


Tanganyika, 


93,000 


2,325,000 


391 



1,508,000 51,886,000 7,251 

The ownership of the great basin, as determined at the Berlin 
conference, is as follows : — 

Countries. Areas. Population. 

French Territory, 62,400 2,121,600 

Portuguese Territory, 30,700 276,300 

Unclaimed, 349,700 6,910,000 

Congo Free State, 1,065,200 42,608,000 

Inquiring, exacting commerce is ever ready with practical ques- 
tions. When it has listened with attentive ear to Stanley's bewild- 
ering estimates, astounding calculations and captivating statements, 
it coldly asks what return shall we find for our wares and for the 
expense and trouble of landing them in these tropical markets ? 
He boldly replies, you cannot shut your eyes to the fact that West- 
ern Africa is already contributing her half of a trade with Europe, 
which already exceeds $150,000,000 a year. This comes almost 
exclusively from a coast line 2900 miles long. Enlarge this line, 
by adding the 6000 miles of navigable waters which are embraced 
in the Congo basin, and this trade by the products which would 
thereby find an outlet, and you would have a traffic equal to $500,- 
000,000 annually. Improve this inland navigation by a railroad 



522 AFRICAN EESOURCES. 

around the cataiacts of tlie Congo, enlist the synipatliies and ener- 
gies of the 43,000,000 of people who inhabit the basin, or even of 
the 4,483,000 who dwell on navigable banks of the water-ways, 
give 'them some idea of the incomputable wealth that is over, 
around and under them, and which may be had by simply reaching 
for it, regard them as men and deal with them as such, and then 
you will soon realize that the Congo banks are worth far more to 
commerce, mile for mile, than the ocean shores. And well might 
he say this, for the banks of the Congo are a succession of villages, 
alive with people imbued with the trading spirit, well acquainted 
with the value of oils, rubber, dye woods and gums, anxious rt>r 
cloth, brass-rods, beads and trinkets. This cannot be said of all 
places on the sea-coast. Stanley narrates, that eager natives have 
followed him for miles offering ivory and red wood powder for 
cloth, and that when they failed to effect a trade, they would ask in 
despair, " Well, what is it you do want? Tell us and we will get it 
for you." 

So sanguine was Stanley of the commercial situation on the 
Congo and in tropical Africa that he ventured to tell the practical 
merchantmen of Manchester how they could triple the commerce 
of the entire west coast of Africa by building two sections of 
narrow guage railway, each 52 and 95 miles long, connected by 
steamboat navigation, or a continuous railway of 235 miles long, 
^around Livingstone Falls, and thereby opening the Upper Congo 
to steamboats. Such a step would insure the active cooperation 
of more than a million of native traders who are waiting to be 
told what they can furnish out of their inexhaustible treasures, 
besides those they have already set a value on, as iron, oil 
ground-nuts, gum, rubber, orchilla, camwood, myrrh, frankincense, 
furs, skins, feathers, copper, fibres, beeswax, nutmegs, ginger, etc. 

Stanley showed how a few factories at available points for the 
conversion of cruder articles into those of smaller bulk, and how 
the trading posts wliich were sure to spring up on the site of 
every important village, would gather in sufficient wares to tax 
the capacity of such a railroad as he contemplated to the utter- 
most, and realize a handsome income on the investment. Uc 
even gave estimates of the cost of the enterprise, which have 



AFRICAN* RESOURCES. 523 

been borne out bj the practical engineers who have since taken 
the woric of building it in hand. 

He showed further how human and animal carriers had failed 
to solve the problem of porterage around Livingstone Falls, 
although the interests beyond, identified with the work of the 
International Association and with Christian missions, were expend- 
ing annually a sum equal to 5| per cent, on the estimated cost 
of a railway. 

He eloquently concludes his survey of tropical African resources 
thus : " Until the latter half of the nineteenth century the world 
was ignorant of what lay beyond the rapids of Isangila, or how 
slight was the obstacle which lay between civilization and the 
broad natural highway which cleared the dark virgin regions of 
Africa into two equal halves, and how nature had found a hundred 
other navigable channels by which access could be gained to her 
latest gift to mankind. As a unit of that mankind for which 
nature reserved it, I rejoice that so large an area of the earth still 
lies to be developed by the coming races ; I rejoice to find that it 
is not only high in value, but that it excels all other known lands 
for the number and rare variety of precious gifts with which nature 
has endowed it. 

" Let us take North America for instance, and the richest portion 
of it, viz: the Mississippi basin, to compare with the Congo basin, 
previous to its development by that mixture of races called modern 
Americans. When De Soto navigated the Father of Waters, and 
the Lidians were undisputed masters of the ample river basin, the 
spirit of enterprise would have found in tlie natural productions 
some furs and timber. 

"The Congo basin is, however, much more promising at the 
same stage of undevelopment. The forests on the banks of the 
Congo are filled with precious red-wood, lignum vitae, mahogany 
and fragrant gum trees. At their base may be found inexhaustible 
quantities of fossil gum, with which the carriages and furnitures of 
civilized countries are varnished ; their foliage is draped with 
orchilla, useful for dye. Tiie red-wood when cut down, chipped 
and rasped, produces a deep crimson colored powder, giving a valu- 
able coloring; the creepers which hang in festoons from the trees 



524 AFRiCAl^ RESOURCES. 

are generally those from which India rubber is produced, the best 
of which is worth fifty cents a pound in a crude state ; the nuts 
of the oil palm give forth a butter which' is a staple article of com- 
merce ; while the fibres of others will make the best cordage. 
Among the wild shrubs are frequently found the coffee-plant. In 
its plains, jungles and swamps, luxuriate the elephants, whose 
teeth furnish ivory woith from two to three dollars a pound in an 
unworked condition* its waters teem with numberless herds of 
hippopotami, whose tusks are also valuable ; furs of the lion, 
leopard, monkeyj otter; hides of the antelope, buffalo, goat and 
cattle, may also be obtained. But what is of more value, it pos- 
sesses over 40,000,000 of moderately industrious and workable 
])eople, which the red Indians never were. And if we speak of 
prospective advantages and benefits to be derived from this late 
gift of nature, they are not much inferior in number or value to 
those of the well developed Mississippi valley. The copper of 
Lake Superior is rivalled by that of the Kwilu valley and of 
Bembe, Rice, cotton, tobacco, maize, coffee, sugar and wheat 
thrive equally well on tlie broad plains of the Congo. This is only 
known after the superficial examination of a limited line which is 
not much over fiftv miles wide. I have heard of gold and silver, 
but the fact of their existence requires confirmation and I am not 
disposed to touch upon what I do not personally know. 

"For climate, the Mississippi valley is superior, but a large part 
of the Congo basin, at present inaccessible to the immigrant, is 
blessed with a temperature under -which Europeans may thrive and 
multiply. There is no portion of it where the European trader may 
not fix his residence for years, and develop commerce to his own 
profit with as little risk as is incurred in India. 

"It is specially with a view to rouse tlie spirit of trade that I 
dilate upon the advantages possessed by the Congo basin, and not 
as a field for the pauper immigrant. There are over 40,000,000 of 
native paupers within the area described, who are poor and degraded 
already, merely because they are compassed round by hostile forces 
of nature and man, denying them contact and intercourse Avith the 
elements which might have ameliorated the unhappiness of their 
condition. ^ European pauperism planted amongst them would soon 



AFRICAN RESOURCES. OZO 

degenerate to the low level of aboriginal degradation. It is a cau- 
tious trader who advances, not without the means of retreat; the 
enterprising merchantile factor who with one hand receives the 
raw produce from the native, in exchange for the finished product 
of the manufacturer's loom — the European middleman who has his 
home in Europe but his heart in Africa — is the man who is 
wanted. These are they who can direct and teach the black pau- 
per what to gather of the multitude of things around him and in 
his neighborhood. They are the missionaries of commerce, adapted 
for nowhere so well as for the Congo basin, where are so many idle 
hands, and such abundant opportunities all within a natural "ring 
fence." Those entirely weak-minded, irresolute and servile people 
who profess scepticism, and project it before them always as a 
shield to hide their own cowardice from general observation, it is 
not my purpose to attempt to interest in Africa. Of the 325,000,000 
of people in civilized Europe, there must be some surely to whom 
the gospel of enterprise I preach will present a few items of fact 
worthy of I'etention in thev.raemory, and capable of inspiring a cer- 
tain amount of action. I am encouraged in this belief by the rapid 
absorption of several ideas which I have promulgated during the 
last few years respecting the Dark Continent. Pious missionaries 
have set forth devotedly to instil the dull mindless tribes the sacred 
germs of religion; but their material difficulties are so great that 
the progress they have made bears no proportion to the courage 
and zeal thej' have exliibited. I now turn to the worldly wise 
traders for whose benefit and convenience a railway must be con- 
structed." 



THE WHITE p I AFI^lGi^, 



ON tlie briglit, accessible side of Africa tlie Pharaohs built their 
temples, obehsks, pyramids and sphinxes. When history 
dawned the seats of Egyptian learning and splendor were 
already in decay. In her conquest and plunder of a thousand years, 
victorious Kome met her most valiant antagonists in Africa, and Afri- 
can warriors carried their standards to the very gates of the capitol 
on the Tiber. In later days the Italian republics which dotted the 
northern coasts of the Mediterranean found their commercial enter- 
prise and their ascendency on the sea challenged by the Moorish 
States which comprised the Barbary coast. Still later, when Spain 
was intent on conquest'^ in America, and the establishment of 
colonies which would insure the spread of the Catholic religion, 
Portugal, in a kindred spirit, was pushing her way down the 
western coast of Africa, acquiring titles by virtue of discovery, 
establishing empires of unknown extent, founding Catholic missions 
and churches, striving for commercial exaltation, till her mariners 
rounded the Cape of Good Hope, turned northward on the eastern 
shores, and again took up the work of colonizing, from Mozambique 
to the outlet of the Eed Sea. 

We never tire of reading the old stories of Portuguese discovery 
and colonization, and our sympathies are aroused for a people who 
struggled so heroically to open a new world to the civihzation of 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But Portuguese effort came to 
naught, when measured by any modern standard of success. It was 
baffled by a thousand undreamt of forces. Its failure, however, 
rendered conspicuous the problem, now more pressing than ever : has 

the white man a natural mission in Africa ? Has not God designed 
(526) ... - , o . 



THE WHITE MAN IN" AFEICA. 627 

it as the natural liome of the dark race ? Are not all our visions of 
conquest and permanent redemption, through and hy means of the 
white races, but idle outcrops of the imagination, or worse, but fig- 
ments born of our desire to subdue and appropriate ? Can compen- 
sation come, in the form of commercial, moral or spiritual advantage, 
adequate to the great sacrifice to be entailed on humanity bj substi- 
tution of white energy for that which is native to African soil and 
climate ? 

It is not worth while to try to answer these questions in the affir- 
mative by appeals to old historic Egypt, to Greek or Eoman occu- 
pancy, to Arab and Mohammedan ascendancy, to Portuguese con- 
quest and missionary enterprise, to the wierd adventures and sad 
fates of the school of intrepid explorers which preceded and followed 
the redoubtable Scotchman, Mungo Park, nor to the long role of 
eftbrts and enterprises made by the respective nations of Europe to 
acquire rich slices of African territory, after Portugal began to lose 
her commercial grip, and after foreign colonization became a Euro- 
pean ambition. ISTo, for as yet nothing appears to show that the 
white man had a mission in Africa, except to gratify his home ambi- 
tions, cater to his European pride, satisfy his desire to pilfer, burn 
and murder. There is no thought yet manifest that the redemption 
of Africa involved more than the subjugation of her people and the 
forcible turning to foreign account of her resources. The question 
has not as yet been asked by the ethnologist, by the grave student 
of causes and effects, nor even by the calculating adventurer, — " Is 
there an African destiny which admits the white races as fair and 
pernament participants, or one which implies universal good when 
the seeming laws of God respecting the home of nations are reversed?" 

Nor does an affirmative answer to any of the above questions arise 
out of England's theft of the Cape of Good Hope, and of that sover- 
eignty she now maintains over the Kimberly diamond diggings and 
the Yaal river sections. National greed or political finesse may ex- 
cuse much, as the dark science of diplomacy goes, but they do not 
make clear how far the natural order of things can be changed with 
benefit to all concerned. This section of Africa is, however, belov*^ 
the tropics, and perhaps does not involve the problem of races so 
deeply as the equatorial regions, 



528 THE WHITE MAN" IN" AFKICA. 

Let US therefore turn to the real Africa, for further inquiry — that 
Africa against which Islamism has dashed itself so repeatedly in its 
efforts to reach the Equator ; that Africa whose climate has beaten 
back Christianity for three centuries ; that Africa amid Avhich sci- 
ence has reveled, but before which legitimate trade has stood ap- 
palled — the tropical, the new Africa. 

In this connection we come upon an order of events, not to say an 
era, which favors an affirmative answer to the above questions, which 
plainly point, not to white encroachment, but to white existence and 
possibilities in the very midst of a continent apparently destined for 
other purposes. The very fact that new discoveries in Central Africa 
have revealed vast populations untouched by civilization has opened 
the eyes of the world to the usual processes of nation-making afresh. 
Have any people ever risen out of barbarism without external help ? 
What is civilized Europe to-day but a grand intermingling of Greek, 
Eoman, Yandal, Hun, Goth, Celt, and Saracen? Had even North 
African influence, in some of its better moods, succeeded in crossing 
the Equator, who knows whether the savagery of the tropics might 
not have been extinct to-day, or at least wholly different from what 
it is ? 

Again, the order of events have brought forth whole masses 
of data for comparison, for experiment, for substantial knowl- 
edge. Who could separate fiction from fact when running over 
the old, fantastic chronicles? Until within the last fifty years 
the hght of true scientific knowledge and of keener commercial 
knowledge had not been shed on the Central African situation. It 
began to dawn when Laird, in 1841, came home to England from 
the Niger, more of an adventurer than any predecessor, yet with no 
wild, discrepant tales, but only hard, practical truths, which com- 
merce welcomed and business enterprise could rely on. Legitimate 
traffic sprang into fine, and British trading houses, doing business on 
honorable terms and for cash values, planted their agents on the 
Gambia, the Eoquelle, the Gold Coast, the Oil Rivers, at Gaboon 
and Kabinda, along thousands of miles of coast. German houses 
sprang up, in honorable rivalry, throughout the same extent, and 
Hamburg and Bremen steamers fairly outstripped those of Liverpool 
and Glasgow. France, too, came into competition, took permanent 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 529 

hold of territory, cultivated reciprocity with the natives, studied 
tribal characteristics, encouraged agential responsibility, and brought 
quite to the surface the problem of white occupancy and develop- 
ment. 

Oat of all this has grown something which is better than theory 
respecting the destiny of the respective races in Africa, superior far 
to all former strifes at mere land-grabbing, and empire building, and 
sovereignty enrichments. European commei'ce with the west and 
southern coast of Africa is now carried on by several regular lines 
of steamers, besides those owned by nam^-ous large trading firms. 
The British and African Steam Navigation Company is a modern 
corporation, and employs 22 steamers. Its older rival, the West 
African Steamship Company, employs 9 steamers. They dispatch 
at least one ship a week from Liverpool to West African ports. 
The Woerman line of steamers runs regularly from Hamburg, the 
Portuguese line from Lisbon, and the French line from Havre. 
Then there are two London lines — the Union and Donald Curry. 
These lines go out heavily freighted with miscellaneous merchandise 
suitable for the African peoples, among which is, unfortunately, a 
large per cent, of gin and other intoxicants, and their return cargoes 
consist of rubber, gum copal, palm-oil, palm kernels, ivory, ground- 
nuts, beeswax, cocoa, coffee, dye-woods, mahogany, etc., gathered up 
at their various stopping points. All these are indigenous African 
products, but it will be observed that those which spring from a 
cultivated soil figure as next to nothing in the list. 

Side by side with these practical sea-going and commercial 
movements went the unfolding of the interior by those indomitable 
men who sacrificed personal comfort and risked life that inner 
Africa might be brought to outer view. This volume is, in part, 
a record of their adventures and pioneering efforts. Their names — • 
the Bakers, Barths, Schweinfurths, Spekes, Grants, Du Chaillus, 
Pintos, Livingstones, Stanley's, and others — form a roll which for 
honor outranks that of the world's greatest generals. They have 
built for themselves monuments which shall outlast those dedicated 
to military conquest, because on them the epitaphs will speak of 
unselfish endeavor in the name of a common humanity. 

What immense problems they had in hand ! How heroically 
84 



530 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

they struggled with them, through tangled jungle, dark forest, dense 
swamps, over plain and mountain, up, down and across unknown 
lakes and rivers, amid beasts of prey and hostile peoples, in the 
face of rain, wind and unkind climates ! And all the while that 
they were toihng and dying, what weird and wonderful revelations 
came, now from the Nile, with its impenetrable suds, its strange 
animal life, its teeming populations; now from the magnificent 
plateaus of the centre with their mighty and enchanting lakes, filled 
with strange fishes, on Avhose banks reveled peoples keen for trade 
or war, happy, if left alone, in smiling gardens and comfortable 
homes; now from the swift rolling Zambesi, shaded with mighty 
forests alive with troops of monkeys, vocal with bird songs, swarm- 
ing witli beasts, whose waters dashed here against curved and 
rocky banks, and there headlong over rocks higher than Niagara, 
bearing everywhere a burden of life in the shape of savage crocodiles, 
bellowing hippopotami and ponderous rhinoceri; now from Kaliliari, 
the great desert of the south which balances that of the north, with 
stunted yet energetic populations, its troops ofzebras, ostriches, 
giraffes, buffaloes, elephants, lions, leopards, making a paradise for 
hunters, with its salt pans, its strange grasses and incomprehensible 
geology; now from the great plain regions between the lakes and 
the water system of the western ocean, where are prairies that vie 
in extent and fertility with those of the Mississippi valley, where the 
numerous Dinkas dwell, brave in cliase, rich in splendid herds of 
cattle, with cosy homes, surrounded by plantations of maize and 
sorghum and bananas; where also the Niam-Niams dwell, equally 
brave and rich and kind, yet savage when stirred, and formidable 
with their home-made iron spears and bright battle axes and swords ; 
where too the Monbuttus dwell, rivals of their northern neighbors in 
agriculture, architecture and art, rich in corn and cattle, protected 
from intruders by a standing army of agile dwarfs, who know no fear 
and who make unerring use of their poisoned arrows in cunning 
ambuscade and in open fields ; and now from the Congo itself, stream 
of African streams, island variegated in one stretch, cataract angered 
in another, draped with forest foliage everywhere, bounded by fertile 
shores backed by endless plains, pouring along through riches of 
gum, dyes, hard-woods such as would enrich kingdoms, supporting a 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 531 

water life as varied and gigantic as any other African lake or river, 
Bustaining a population of incomputable numbers, opening a water 
way into tlie very heart of the continent for steamers, inviting the 
civilized world to come and go, partake and enjoy. 

As all these surprising revelations were given to the outer world, 
by the pioneers of civilization who were struggling within Africa, 
we began to get new conceptions of situations whose existence never 
dawned on those who were skimming the ocean's shores and fight- 
ing the battles of commerce. A new world had been brought to 
light, not only geographically, but as to its soil, water, vegetation, 
animals, people, climate, and every physical aspect. It was a world 
to be envied, possessed and reclaimed, because it was one which 
could be made to contribute to the wealth and happiness of all out- 
side of it. Moveover, it was one to which all could contribute, not 
only of their better matei'ial things, but of their better social and 
moral things. Commerce decided at once that there was a demand 
for Africa. Politics cried out for its possession. Humanity and 
Christianity found a new and solemn duty in Africa. 

It was not the province of the first traveler and explorer to argue 
questions which belong to others and to the future. He could state 
what he saw and felt — how liot the sun was, what the rain-fall, tiie 
quantity and nature of the resources. But when he revealed and 
mapped a new world, and created a desire for its possession and 
civilization by others, there was no fighting shy of tlie problems 
involved in the proposed new destiny. A thousand and one things 
would come up which had never arisen before. Many of these 
problems are of minor moment, many momentous. Some involve 
others, some are sweeping. There is one which overshadows all. 
Some would ask, "How shall we go about colonizing and civiliziiig 
Africa?" This question is the rind of an apple. At the core is 
another. Can the proposed colonizers and civilizers exist in Africa ? 
After that is determined, we shall knovv pretty well how to do the 
rest. 

Of all African explorers, Stanley has made this vital question 
the most conspicuous, because he, almost alone, has coupled pio- 
neering effort with state building and the colonizing and civilizing 
process. He has been forced to face the climatic situation since it 



532 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

came squarely across his industrial and commercial plans and 
involved the question of capital, which is far more sensitive and 
cowardly than even human life, 

Stanley's personal career in Africa, as well as his extensive 
experience with others, goes far to establish the fact that the white 
racecannottransferitself bodily and permanently to tropical African 
soil, with the hope of survival. The difficulty is not because it is 
white, but because its customs and environment are at variance 
with those which perpetuate life and conduce to labor under the 
Equator. 

In the north temperate zone a man may believe himself capable 
of persistent effort and heroic work. He may think he has intelli- 
gence, valor and strength sufficient to sustain him under the 
greatest privations. But land him in Africa and he is both wit- 
less and nerveless. He has never learned the art of living the life 
that is required there. He is not the same being he was when he 
started out so hopefully and valorously. He finds he lacks equip- 
ment for his new existence, mental, moral and physical. A sacri- 
fice is demanded. It is the sacrifice of an almost perfect transfor- 
mation, or else the confession of failure must conclude his career. 

Stanley's most melancholy chapters are those which narrate the 
oozing out of ambitions, the confessions of cowardice, and the 
shirking away of his white companions, on the discovery that their 
civilized lives had been no school of.preparation for healthful, ener- 
getic and useful existence in Equatorial Africa. It was a painful 
study to note how in the face of tropical realities, the fervid imagi- 
nations and exaggerated anticipations which had led them heroic- 
ally on took flight, leaving them hapless malingerers, hopeless des- 
pondents, and unfit for anything but retreat. He had no fault to 
find where brave men fell through actual physical weakness, but 
the general fault, the grave, almost unpardonable mistake, was the 
terrible one of not knowing what they were at home and what they 
were to be in Africa. He says :— " The influence of the wine or 
beer, which at the first offset from Europe had acted on their 
impulses like the effect of quinine on weakened nerves, soon evap- 
orated in a wineless land, and with their general ignorance of adap- 
tation to foreign circumstances, and a steady need of the exhilara- 



g34 TfHE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

ting influence of castomary stimulants, an unconquerable ilepression 
usurped the high-blown courage it inspired, which some called nos- 
talgia (home-sickness) and some hypochondria. Many had also, as 
they themselves confessed, come out merely to see the great river. 
Their imaginations had run riot amid herds of destructive ele- 
phants, raplcious lions, charging buffaloes, bellowing hippopotami, 
and repugnant rhinoceri, while the tall lithe-necked giraffe and the 
the graceful zebra occupied the foreground of those most unreal 
pictures. Their senses had also been fired by the looks of love and 
admiration cast on them by their sweethearts, as they declared 
their intention to 'go out to the Congo regions,' while many a 
pleasant hour must have been spent together as they examined the 
strange equipments, the elephant-rifles, the penetrative ' Express,' 
and described in glowing terms their life in the far off palmy lands 
watered by the v/inding Ikelemba or the mighty Congo. Thus 
they had deluded themselves as well as the International Commit- 
tee, whose members looked with eyes of commendation as the 
inspired heroes delivered with bated breath their unalterable reso- 
lution to ' do or die.' 

" But death was slow to attack the valorous braves while the 
doable lay largely extended before them. The latter was always 
present with its exasperating plainness, its undeniable imperative- 
ness which affronted their 'susce[)tibilities,' and ignored their titles 
and rights to distinction. The stern every -day reality, the meagre 
diet and forbidding aspect, humbled their presumption. When they 
hear that in tliis land there is neither wine nor beer, as they have 
known them, nor comfortable cognac to relieve the gnawing, dis- 
tressful hankering they suffered for their usual beverages, their 
hearts beat more feebly. They begin to see that those bright Afri- 
can images and beautiful dreams of tropical scenery and excitement 
are replaced by unknown breadths of woodless regions, exuberant 
only with tall spear grass and jungly scrub. The hot sun dares 
them to the trial of forcing a way through such scarcely penetrable 
growth. Distance and fatigue, seeming to be immense beyond any 
former conception, masters their resolution ; and, alas 1 and alas ! 
there are no fair maidens with golden hair to admire their noble 
efforts at doing and dying. 



TfiE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 535 

"Conscience, or the prickings of sliaine, may wliisper to a few 
not quite lost in despondency, that there is brave vvorlc to be per- 
formed, and tliat they may experience the colonist's pleasure of see- 
ing the vegetables, fruit-trees and plants grow instead of that cane- 
grass and jungle now covering the broad acreage. But some 
answer, 'Bah! I did not come to work; I came to hunt, to play, 
to eat, and to receive a big salary from the Commission.' 

" ' Do you feel fatigued ? Try some hot tea or coffee.' 

"'What!' shriek they. ' Try Congo water! No, thank you ; 
my stomach was made for something better than to become a nest 
for young crocodiles.' " 

In all -the foregoing Stanley speaks of the white help that was 
furnished him for his mission to found the Congo Free State. Tlie 
help was of a high grade, being composed of men who came recom- 
mended to the Commission. They were selected for their valor 
and skill at home and for their professed willingness to brave African 
climate and all the dangers of exploration and colonization. They 
were for tlie most part educated men and well qualified to engineer 
roads, build comfortable homes, establish trading and military 
stations, carry on just commerce and exercise wise government over 
consenting tribes and contiguous territories. They were young, 
ambitious men, who had their fames and fortunes to make and to 
whom failure at home would have been a misfortune and disgrace. 
Indeed, if one had been going to pick out a body of men for the 
express i)urpose of testing the question whether it is possible for 
the white races to exist and thrive in tropical Africa, establish civi- 
lized governments, cultivate the soil, carry on manufactures and 
commerce, redeem the natives, and introduce institutions such as 
are found at home, these would have been the men. 

But let us see how they fared. Stanley takes one as a sample — 
he does not fail to make honorable exceptions of those who behaved 
differently, — and this one perhaps, the loudest professor, at the 
start, of heroic zeal in his undertaking. He is conducted to the 
site of a newly established station and endowed with full authority. 
He is given an army of forty disciplined blacks, and two or three 
of his own color are left with him as companion and assistants. He 
is made a rich banker for the surrounding tribes by heaps of cloth 



536 tSe White Mai^ iisf Af'ricA. 

bales, bags of beads, and bundles of brass-rods, the bank notes of 
the country, with full liberty to circulate them to the best advan- 
tage. The river at his feet swarms with fish of edible varieties, 
which he may catch in plenty, if he chooses to imitate the industry 
and ingenuity of the natives. The surrounding villages are full of 
fowls, and eggs are plenty. Sheep and goats can always be had, if 
the slightest attention is paid to their grazing and to their protec- 
tion against wild beasts. In the west, goat's milk, and in the centre 
and east, cow's milk, can be had with little trouble. The natives, 
ahnost everywhere, raise sweet potatoes in abundance and sell them 
cheaply. Most villages have their fields of cassava, whose, root 
yields a wholesome food, which can be prepared in a variety of 
agreeable ways. All of the ordinary garden vegetables, as tomatoes, 
beans, pu]npkins, and onions can be grown with easy tillage. In 
his commissariat are stores of rice, canned vegetables, wheat flour, 
fish, meats, and soups from Europe, together with tea, coffee, butter, 
jam, condensed-milk, and in fact everything to tempt a palled 
palate or a weak stomach. The question of food is therefore settled 
in such a maimer as to require very little exertion or sacrifice to 
make the supply permanent, varied and wholesome. 

What else is required ? A strong block house is built, and this 
is surrounded by a comfortable dwellings, erected after the manner 
of the neatly thatched huts of the natives, or even after the more 
approved architecture of civilization, if time permits and the proper 
materials are at hand. A palaver is called and whites and natives 
put themselves on political and also commercial equality, with as 
much of social relationship as suits the tastes of either party. The 
solemn treaty is approved and promulgated, and the commandant 
of the station, governor of a province, official of a great state, 
arbiter of the destiny of tribes, custodian of the welfare of peoples, 
minister, judge, doctor, commercial agent, the man to whom civili- 
zation is looking as founder, teacher and exemplar ; this wonderful 
man, so full of pride and responsibility, so exalted with a sense of 
duty, so endowed with grand opportunity, is ready for his insti'uc- 
tions and commission. His domain is pointed out and the fact is 
impressed on him that it has been acquired with the sanction of the 
civilized world and that of. the only parties on African soil capable 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 637 

of giving consent. He is left as master and sole arbiter of all ques- 
tions that may arise, and only asked by the power that institutes 
him to be just in his dealings with the peoples he is to govern, to 
extend kindness to those for whom lie has been made a protector, 
to prove that the authority imposed has not been misplaced. He 
is furnished with a written dral't of instructions which is to be his 
code of laws, his state constitution, his plan for founding and 
developing his little empire. Could anything be more flattering 
to one's ambitions? What greater inducement could one want to 
exercise every latent energy, to found deeply, build well and rule 
wisely? Visions of a future state, crowded with obedient, indus- 
trious subjects, crowned with wealth and prosperity, shedding lustre 
on its ruler, proclaiming to the world the success of a first and 
glorious experiment, ought to stimulate even the most indifferent 
to sublime endeavor. 

But a few months passes, during which the embryo potentate is 
left to himself. Then along comes Stanley, from an up-river 
journey, on a tour of inspection. Where he expects to see his 
block-house and cottages expanded into a substantial village, he 
witnesses only roofless structures, exposed goods and every evidence 
of decay. Rank weeds grow where a site had been cleared for a 
vegetable garden, and the forest is asserting itself on the ground 
prepared for a banana orchard. Perhaps the natives have been 
angered, for they hold the capital in a state of siege, the stores are 
empty and grim famine stalks where plenty should have reigned. 
Or else, not being bloody-minded, they withhold their help and 
pi'esence, and leave a trading mart to perish through sheer disin- 
clination to traffic. He who was to have been a ruler is worse off 
than a subject. Where ambition should have stimulated, indiffer- 
ence prevails. Industry has been lost in idleness. Glory has 
ended in shame. One word of comment, one look of reproach, 
brings a resignation and an abandonment, and the once proud 
adventurer Avho went out to see and conquer strange worlds, beats a 
hasty retreat to his comfortable European home to curse his folly 
and denounce the spirit that sought to sacrifice him. Failure is 
written between every line of the long story with which he regales 
his friends as he drops back into his old haunts and resumes the 



538 I'HE WHITE MAlf IN AFRlCA. 

thread of civilized life, once so willingly broken bj dreams of gloiy, 
wealth and hurnantarian good. 

It may seem a surprise to the reader that Africa could so disillu- 
sion enthusiasts of tlie character above described. But he has only 
to follow Stanley along the line of the Congo, from one station to 
the other, and witness his disappointment on his return jonrney, to 
ascertain liow frequent the failures were to improve opportunity or 
make even the slightest show of progress in building and cultivat- 
ing. Nay more, since nothing could stand still, the signs of retro- 
gression were still more frequent, and ruin marked the spots which 
he had dedicated to enterprise and prosperity. Why were these 
men so radically transformed ? This is a mighty question. Was 
it the fault of Africa or of Europe ? 

Stanley reasons thus : " The conditions of a healthy enjoyment 
of life in Africa are very little understood by men of this class. It 
is a difficult thing to impart to them the rudiments of the lesson of 
life. It is a most tliankless task, and the effort to do so is so 
ungraciously received that I have often been repelled by the visible 
signs of non-appreciation. Earely have I been encouraged to pro- 
ceed by those to whom counsel was addressed. They do not seem 
to take any interest in what concerns their own health. They duly 
acknowledge that it is a duty they owe to themselves to be as 
careful as possible ; tliey are civil with replies and ready with 
promises of amendment. But they do not practice what they 
promise, and that active zeal and watchful prudence which would 
seem to govern one who loves his own life and welfare I rarely see 
exhibited. The performance appears to be too irksome, and neither 
their intelhgence nor their conscience is provoked to assist them. 
I remember Frank Pocock, who must (almost as the sound of my 
voice died away) have been meditating on that step by which he 
lost his life, and which caused me, for months, a pang of sorrow, 
each time I thouglit of his sad end. 

"I have observed also that not only in matters of self-preserva- 
tion is this apathy evident, but that it is present in the every day 
duty of the expedition, which they are pledged to perform and for 
which they receive compensation. Any single order they will per- 
form well and creditably, but if T accompany it with the expres- 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFHICA. 539 

sion of a hope that they will consider it a daily duty, the order 
becomes at once inoperative and is never observed. I have observed 
that such an order is too general to be followed ; but a particuhir 
order will be mechanically obeyed. A promise of promotion, or 
higher pay, or a display of tender solicitude, creates no impression, 
and as yet I know of no motive powerful enough to excite a 
European or West African aborigine to distinguish himself by an 
assiduous interest in general work. The only people on whom my 
words created a prolonged impression were the foreign colored 
employes. Now to what may I attribute this absence of intelli- 
gent interest in their work which is characteristic of the European 
and the west coast native? Is it to the chmate ? Then why did 
it not effect all alike? Why did it not effect myself? 

" But of all the rabid absurdities I have encountered in the 
tropics, the preaching of a young fool on the merits of intoxicants, 
who has heard it from an old fool that there is nothing like 
whiskey, astonishes me most. Mr. Puff'yface, while in a semi- 
maudlin state, has been heard declaring, in the hearing of a youth- 
ful enthusiast, that ' after fourteen years' experience with the African 
fever, despite all that may be said against it, there is nothing like 
whiskey for curing it.' For the benefit of after-comers let me 
prick this bloated bubble. Show me one of those old bloaters on 
the west coast of Africa and I will show you a sham and delusion. 
A few hours' hard work in the interior would lay the lazy lion as low 
as a dead donkey. Gin and whiskey topers have lived long elsewhere 
than on the Niger and Congo, but if you meet him on the Afi'ican 
coast a glance at his shirt will tell you the whole truth. If it is 
free from stains of bodily exudation, then he has simply been 
'sojering,' and it will be difficult to say how long a time must 
elapse before the liver shows a deadly abcess or becomes indurated. 
But if you want to do humanity a kindness, trot him out on a ten- 
mile march through the African wilderness, and note the result. 

" On the Congo, where men must work and bodily movement is 
compulsory, the very atmosphere seems to be fatally hostile to men 
who pin their faith on whiskey, gin and brandy. They invariably 
succumb and are a constant source of anxiety and expense. Even if 
they are not finally buried out of sight and memory, they are so 



540 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

atterly helpless, diseases germinate in them with such frightful 
rapidity, symptoms of insanity are so frequent, mind- vacancy and 
semi-paralysis are so common, that they are hurried homeward, 
lest they draw down a few more curses on Africa which apply only 
to themselves. 

" The evils of brandy and soda in India need only be remembered 
to prove how pernicious is the suicidal habit of indulgence in 
alcoholic liquors in hot climates. The west coast of Africa is 
also too much indebted to the ruin effected by intemperance. 

"But it is my belief that the other extreme is unwise. To 
abstain entirely from drinking wine because intemperance is mad- 
ness, is not what I inculcate, nor do I even recommend drinking in 
what is called moderation. I do not advocate ' liquoring up' at 
any time, provided the drinker keeps within the limits of sobriety. 
I advise no one, in the tropics, to touch liquor during the hours of 
daylight, unless prescribed by a medical man. Wine, good red or 
white wine, should be taken only after sunset at dinner. Then it 
should be watered and taken in moderate quantities, that it may 
sooth the nerves and conduce to early sleep. After a full night's 
rest, one will rise with a clear head and clean tongue, and can as 
easily do a full day's work in the tropics as in the temperate lati- 
tudes." 

Stanley then, goes on to correct misapprehensions about African 
climate and lay down rules of conduct which, if followed, would go 
far to insure a healthful condition. He takes a young European 
adventurer to the Congo, full of health and of the spirit of adven- 
ture. As soon as the anchor drops at Banana Point, the young 
man feels the perspiration exuding till his flannels, comfortable at 
sea, become almost unendurable. On stepping ashore the warmth 
increases and the flannels absorb perspiration till they cling to the 
body and oppress him with their weight. The underclothing is 
saturated, and he resembles a water-jug covered with woolen cloth. 
The youth makes an escape from this melting heat of 100° to 115° 
by going to the veranda of some friendly quarters. Here he does 
not observe that the temperature is 25° cooler, but mops his brow, 
fans himself, lolls in his easy chair, and sighs at the oppressiveness. 
Presently some one recommends the reviving quality of wine. 



542 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

Auytliing to lift him out of the condition lie is in ! One drink gives 
him freshness and courage. Another reconciles him to the strange 
situation. A third produces conviviality, and then, in the midst of 
story-telling companions, who spin rare old yarns of coast fevers, 
elephant adventures, crocodile attacks, hippo-escapades, "nigger" 
sensations, evening draws on. There is dinner and more wine. 
Then comes the veranda again. It is now cool, delicious, inviting. 
He has forgotten his damp clothing. Bed-time comes. He retires 
to toss till morning, or to sleep in the midst of horrid dreams. 
When he rises, he is unwell. Plis tongue is furred and a strange 
lassitude pervades his body. Nausea sets in. In a few hours his 
face is flushed, his eyes water, his pulse runs high. The doctor is 
called,, and he pronounces it a case of African fever. He is given a 
kind native nurse. The battle of sickness is fought to an end. 
Death may ensue, but the chances are always in favor of recovery, 
though convalescence is slow. 

Of a score who have witnessed this sight, each will have a theory. 
One will say, " What a pity he left his mother ! " Another, " It must 
have been some organic weakness." Another, " It was hereditary." 
Another will cry out, " One more African victim ! " Tlie last one, 
and he as if in doubt and in an undertone, may venture to surmise 
that too much Portuouese wine mav have been at the bottom of it 
— which is as bad as brandy. 

The truth of the matter is, ignorance Avas at the bottom of it all. 
The young man may not have thought he was sitting in a cool 
night air, according to his European notions of temperature, but an 
evening in Africa, or a draught of air, presents as dangerous a con- 
trast with midday heat, or as insidious a cause for congestion, as in 
any other country. Stanley suffered with 120 attacks of fever, 
great and slight, and endured fully 100 of them before he began to 
suspect that other causes existed for them besides malaria and 
miasma, or that he had within himself a better preventive than 
quinine. His observations, directed toward the last to this one 
point, utterly astounded him. with the fact that the most sickness 
xnight have been witnessed at those stations which were not sur- 
rounded by putrifying vegetation, but had been selected so as to 
sccui-c the highest degree of health. Old Vivi is one of these spots, 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA, 543 

situated on a rocky platform, with steep drainage, and witli tlie 
majestic river dashing off* between the sh)pes of high mountains for 
a distance of forty miles. Yet Old Vivi is, with the exception of 
Manyanga, the sickliest spot in all the Congo Free State, according 
to his observations. If all preconceived notions of health had been 
correct, Old Yivi should be the healthiest spot on the Congo, cer- 
tainly far more so than scores of the Upper Congo stations, situated 
within ten feet of the water's edge and surrounded by hundreds of 
square miles of flat, black loam covered with dense, damp forests. 
Yet to dispatch the fever-stricken and emaciated sojourners of Old 
Yivi, Manyanga or Leopoldville to some one of these upper, isolated 
and shaded stations, proved to be like sending them to a sanatarium 
in the pine-woods or by the sea shore. The change is simply 
astounding. Tlie patient takes on flesh, grows ruddy, healthful, 
pliant and hopeful. 

Stanley had much anxiety about the station at Kinshassa, because 
it was so low-lying, though in every other way convenient. But, 
strange to say, one of his commandants who was always feverish at 
Yivi, Manyanga and Leopoldville, escaped without an attack of 
fever, or any other indisposition, for eighteen months, when 
stationed at Kinshassa. He was equally anxious about Equator 
Station, situated as it was directly under the Equator. But the 
commandants all praise the climate as capital, with plenty of native 
products at hand, and no need of anything foreign except a little tea 
and coffee. Of the 29 Europeans in the service of the Congo Free 
State above Leopoldville, all served their three year term of service 
except two who were drowned, one who died of sickness and one 
who resigned on account of severe illness. The inference from 
these facts is that the nearer the coast the stations are and the more 
accessible they are by steamers, the better the facilities are for 
stores of whiskey, brandy and wines, whose free use is an invitation 
to African sickness. Also, that the further inland one goes the 
more experience he acquires as to the means of preserving health. 
Every day's march inland is a species of acclimatization and a 
removal from temptation. It is a putting off of ignorance and a 
putting on of knowledge. Again, the further up the Congo one 
goes the more he is freed from the draughts which haunt the 



5_1._|. THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

canons of the lower streams. While Vivi is an ideal spot so far as 
every visible hygienic consideration goes, it is at the lop of an 
immense funnel with its wide end toward the sea, and the sea 
breezes sweep up the channel with cumulative vigor, producing a 
difference of temperature between day and night, or shade and sun- 
shine, which is fatal to the overheated toiler. And the same may 
be said of Manyanga and Leopoldville. But the wide, lacustrine 
stretches of Stanley Pool dissipate this deadly draught and equalize 
the day and night and sunshine and shade temperatures. Thus 
inner Central Africa becomes even healthier than the const rind, as 
it were by natural laws. From which arises the strange anomaly 
that at the Equator it is not African heat a foreigner need dread so 
much as African cold. 

Yet no precaution against the oppressive heat must be neglected. 
And this precaution must become a law of life. It must not be 
spasmodic and remitting, but must be daily and hourl}^, in fact 
must be persisted in till the whole habit conforms to the environ- 
ment, just as at home amid civilization. Captain Benton, after his 
visit to the Congo, proclaimed beef and beer us the true fortifying 
agents against the climate. Stanley says nay. Beef, he admits to 
be all right, in the sense of good, nourishing food. But, not beef 
alone, so much as that wholesome variety found in well cooked 
beef, mutton, game, fish and fowl, intei'mixed with potatoes, tur- 
nips, cabbages, beets, carrots, bread, butter, tea and coffee. Beers 
of civilization are too bilious for Africa, and the distilled spirits are 
fatally stimulating, leading up to a false courage which may tempt 
one to too much effort or to dangerous exposure to the sun's rays. 
The Duke of Wellington's health receipt for India is equally good 
in Africa: "I know of but one receipt for good health in this 
country, and that is to live moderately, drink little or no wine, use 
exercise, keep the mind employed, keep in a good humor with the 
world. The last is the most difficult, for I have often observed, 
there is scarcely a good-tempered man in India." 

Moderation is the key to health in central Africa. It must be 
moderation in action, food and drink. Yet there must be engag- 
ment of body and mind, great good humor, contentment with sur- 
roundinos. .A lesson in these respects might be learned from the 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 545 

natives. It is often and truthfully said, that they are the happiest 
and freest from care of any people on the face of the globe. '' Take 
no thought of the morrow, for ye know not what a day may bring 
forth," is the gospel of health among Africans. Prodigal nature 
helps them to a philosophy, which we may call shiftless ease, 
happy-go-lucky-effort, or go-as-you-please contentment, but it, nev- 
ertheless, is only a crude modification of our more deliberately 
framed and higher sounding hygienic codes for the preservation of 
health when we are in their land and subject to their climate and 
conditions of living and working. 

Stanley exemplifies the effect of African cold in another way. 
In ascending the Congo in his steamers, the entire party enjoyed 
excellent health, notwithstanding the confinement to the stream 
and the almost continuous passage through reedy islands and along 
low, swampy shores. But on the descent, the swifter passage of 
the boats in the face of the prevailing west winds, and river 
draughts, produced a chill, during moments of inaction, which, 
prostrated many of the crew, and resulted in serious cases of sick- 
ness. Anywhere under shelter, the body continued to perspire 
insensiblj^, but the moment it was struck by the wind, there 
resulted a condition which invariably ended in low fever. 

For the ill-health due to African cold, especially where the situa- 
tion is like that at Vivi, the rainy season is a corrective, because 
then tlie cold winds cease and the temperature is uniform. But at 
the same time, the rainy season is the prelude to sickness in the 
lower and better protected situations. The Livingstone Congo 
Mission at Manteka is in a snug nest between high, hills, entirely 
cut off from winds, and surrounded by beautiful gardens of bananas 
and papaws. Ordinarily it is a healthful spot, and ought to be so 
always, if freedom from exposure is a law of health. But after 
the rainy season it is unhealthy. A peculiarly clear atmosphere 
and a correspondingly hot sun follow the African rains. These 
cause rapid earth exhalations which rise up around the body like a 
cloud, and soon deluge the person with perspiration. These exhal- 
ations bear the odors of decaying vegetation and become as per- 
nicious as the effluvia from a dung-heap, unless resort is had to 
the heat of stoves or fire-places to counteract their deadly effects. 
35 



546 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

Due care in this respect is all that is required to insure immunity 
from sickness caused by these evaporations. 

Even the plateaus are not exempt from fevers. But they for the 
most part are covered with long grass. Vegetation so luxuriant, 
falling and decaying, constantly fermenting and fertilizing, would be 
a source of sickness anywhere. When once they are cleared and 
planted to corn, wheat or vegetables, this source of sickness will 
disappear. A well ventilated home, in the midst of a cleared and 
cultivated plateau, is as healthful in Africa as in any other part of 
the world. The lessons of health taught daily by the natives 
ought to be a constant study for foreigners. They fight entirely shy 
of the canons of the Congo, whereas at Stanley Pool there is an 
army of ivory-traders. Then the immediate banks of the river 
are comparatively deserted, except where the spaces are open. The 
gorges, and deep valleys of tributaries, are by no means favorite 
dwelling places, though, they are too often the sites of mission- 
houses and trading posts. The fetishes of the natives could not 
prevail against disease in the hollows and shaded nooks of their 
land, nor can the drugs of the white races. The native seeks a 
cleared space, open to sunshine, elevated so as to insure circulation 
of air, and for the most part, he looks down on the less favorable 
abodes of the foreigner. 

Stanley summarizes the causes of ill-health in Africa, and 
arranges them in the order of effectiveness. He gives as the most 
serious (1) cold draughts. (2) Malarious hollows. (3) Intemper- 
ate living. (4) Lack of nourishing food. (5) Physical weakness, 
indolence of mind and body, general fool-hardiuess. One source of 
encouragement became manifest as years rolled by, and that was the 
constant diminution of illness among the officials of the Congo Free 
State. This was in some degree due to the doctrine of "survival 
of the fittest," looked upon from a constitutional standpoint, but in 
the main to the willingness of the survivors to learn, and their 
learning consisted in putting away the habits they had formed 
abroad and the assumption of those which fitted their new estate. 

Owing to the formation of the African continent, with its fringe 
of low land and its miles of slope up to the central plateau, the 
prevailing winds sweep inland from the ocean, over the pestilential 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFKICA. 547 

lowlands, bearing tlie seeds of disease. This meteorological law 
must be met by the inland dwellers, in order to secure immunity 
from disease. And it can be met very readily, as experience proves, 
by the planting of tree barriers on the ocean side of residences and 
plantations. 

Stanley's observations thus far relate to the climatology of cen- 
tral Africa as affecting the health of the white resident. lie next 
discusses the question of tropicalheat as it affects the effort of the 
white races. The intensity of the Congo heat is by no means such 
as the casual reader would suspect. An average of the highest 
temperatures in the year gives a mean of only 90°, while that of 
the lowest gives a mean of 67°. Clad in suitable clothes a Euro- 
pean or American can do as much work in a day in Africa as at 
home, provided he works under an awning or roof. In the sun, the 
temperature is, of a clear day, as much as 115°, which would be 
fatal to one standing still. The ill-effects of such a heat are seldom 
apparent on a march, though for the comfort of all concerned Stan- 
ley usually limited his marching hours to from 6 A. M. to 11 A. 
M., thus giving ample time to prepare evening camps and to rest, 
feed and recuperate. 

In tropical Africa there is manifest coolness for three months of 
the j'-ear. During the other nine months there is so much cloud and 
such an abundance of tempering breezes, as to prevent that intense 
heat which one would expect under the Equator or within the 
tropics. The nights are seldom oppressive, and though in temper- 
ate latitudes one might not feel the need of a blanket, such an arti- 
cle becomes an indispensible luxury in Africa. 

At any point where facilities offer, as at a factory, trading station 
or mission, there is no need of exposure to the sun during work 
hours. Awnings are, or should be, a part of the equipment of 
every white African sojourner, but if these are wanting the trees 
are plenty, and their gracious shade will answer as a substitute. 
Few craftsmen in any country are compelled to work without cover, 
and it requires but an extension of the rule to make labor safe in 
Africa. 

Exercise -of any kind in Africa induces copious perspiration, and 
it should never be forgotten that between a state of action in the 



548 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

sun, or even under cover, and a state of rest iu tlie shade, means a differ- 
ence in temperature equal to 25°. This is a sure cause of congestion 
and other bodilj derangements. It is the one invariable climatic law 
in Africa, and is wholly different from that at Para, where the varia- 
tions are only 9°, thus insuring immunity from all diseases which 
have a cause in sudden or radical changes of temperature. Climatic 
inequality is deadlier in Equatorial Africa than its malaria. Yet 
it can be guarded against, and that too by the simplest precautions. 

The early ^plorers, pioneers and commercial agents in Africa, 
especially on the west coast, were ignorant of the foregoing facts. 
Hence so many of them lost their lives needlessly. Hence the 
terrible stories borne home of the deadly effect of African heat and 
climate. They had never studied the law of adaptation, and 
instead of helping to solve the problem of white occupancy they 
only contributed to its defeat. In the wiser experience of Stanley a 
secret has been brought forth which, in its bearing upon the future 
of the country, is not even surpassed in importance by the opening 
of the Congo itself. 

Tropical food is of as much moment to a foreigner as climate. 
It is clear that alcoholic stimulants are dangerous. Tea has a 
depressing tendency and the same may be said of cofifee, though 
both are grateful, for a time at least. Cocoa tends to biliousness. 
Milk is hard to obtain on the west coast, though it may be had in 
the cattle producing sections of the centre and east. Soup implies 
fresh meat, and is therefore limited to the broth of the goat, slieep 
or chicken, unless it come in canned shape. Palm-wine, except 
when fresh, injures the kidneys and stomach. All taste is soon 
lost for the canned goods of civilization. Flour, rice and the native 
fruits and vegetables are wholesome standards. 

Stanley's code of health for the white sojourner in Africa would 
be as follows : — 

Never build a house, factory or mission in a ravine or valley 
which may serve as a wind channel. Air must diffuse itself gener- 
ally and gently. Points near the sea, plateaus and open plains are 
tlie safest localities for homes. All lower stories should be clear 
of the ground. In grassy sections the first floor should -be elevated 
to the height of a second story. 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFEICA. 549 

Avoid all unnecessary exposure to the sun. 

Guard against fogs, dews, exhalations, and night chills, by kind- 
ling fires. 

Preserve a generous diet, avoiding oily and fatty foods. 

Meats should not be eaten in large quantities at breakfast. 

Take an early dinner, say at 11 o'clock, and let it be of meats, 
fish and vegetables. Cease work till 1 P. M. 

Quit work at 6 P. M., and eat a second dinner, boiled fish, roast 
fowl or mutton, with plenty of vegetables. A glass of watered 
wine will not hurt then. 

Seek amusement in social conversation, reading or games, till 9 
P. M., and then retire. 

Sleep on blankets, and cover with a blanket. 

If marching, rise at 5 A. M., march at 6, and halt for the day at 
11 A. M. When halted, seek shelter and put on a heavier coat. 

Observe the strictest temperance. Don't indulge in tonics or 
nostrums. A little quinine is the safest tonic. If thirsty drop an 
acid powder in your drinking water, or take a sip of cold tea. 

Use an umbrella when in the sun. The best head dress is a 
cork helmet, or Congo cap. 

If in a perspiration when wetted by rain or at a river crossing, 
change your dress immediately. 

Go on a march in very light clothing, and let it be of flannel, 
with light russet shoes for the feet. 

When permanently stationed, wear light clothing in order to 
avoid excessive perspiration when called on for sudden duty. 

Don't fail to exercise freely. Have certain hours for it, morning 
and evening, if your work is in doors. 

Do not bathe in cold water, especially after you are in the coun- 
try for a time. Water below 85° in temperature is dangerous. 

Tropical fruits should be eaten only at breakfast. 

Medicines specially prepared for tropical diseases can always be 
had of European druggists, and a supply should be on hand. 

The diseases of central Africa are simple, consisting of dysentery 
and three kinds of fever, ague, remittent, and bilious. 

Common ague is never fatal. It may be prevented, if one 
observes the symptoms. 



550 "THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

The remittent fever is simplj aggravated ague. It may last for 

several days. 

The bilious fever is oftea pernicious. Its severity depends on 
the habits of the patient, the amount of exposure which produced 
it, and the strength of the constitution. It is preventable, but not 
by brandy or excessive smoking, as many foolish people think. 

Dr. Martin, in his work on the " Influences of Tropical Climates," 
also lays down a code which is both interesting and valuable. 

1. Care in diet, clothing and exercise are more essential for the 
preservation of health than medical treatment. 

2. The real way to escape disease is by observing strict temper- 
ance, and to moderate the heat by all possible means. 

3. After heat has morbifically predisposed the body, the sudden 
influence of cold has the most baneful effect on the human frame. 

4. The great physiological rule for preserving health in hot cli- 
mates is to keep the body cool. Common sense points out the 
propriety of avoiding heating drinks. 

5. The cold bath is death in the collapse which follows any great 
fatigue of body or mind. 

6. Licentious indulgence is far more dangerous and destructive 
than in Europe, 

7. A large amount of animal food, instead of giving strength, 
heats the blood, renders the system feverish, and consequently 
weakens the whole body. 

8. Bread is one of the best articles of diet. Eice and split 
vetches are wholesome and nutritious. Vegetables are essential to 
good health, as carrots, turnips, onions, native greens, etc. 

9. Fruit, when sound and ripe, is beneficial rather than hurtful. 

10. The same amount of stimulant undiluted, is much more 
injurious than when mixed with water. 

11. With ordinary precaution and attention to the common laws 
of hygiene, Europeans may live as long in the tropics as anywhere 
else. 

Stanley's final observation on the existence of the white race in 
Africa does not smack of the confidence he has thus far striven to 
inspire. Yet it does not suggest an impossibility, nor anything dif- 
ficult to carry out, since the continent is so contiguous to Europe. 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 551 

He recommends a change of scene to the African denizen for at least 
three months in a year, because the constant high temperature 
assisted by the monotony and poverty of diet, is enervating and 
depressing. The physical system becomes debilitated by the heat, 
necessitating after a few years such recuperation as can be found 
only in temperate latitudes. Even with persons who retain health, 
this enervating feeling begins to dawn at the end of eighteen montlis ; 
hence traders, missionaries, planters and agriculturists, who hope to 
keep up buoyancy of spirit and sucli a condition of body as will 
resist the climate through a lifetime, should seek the periodical 
relaxation to be found in trips to higher latitudes. 

While this may not be giving his whole case away, or indeed 
suggesting nothing more than such change of scene as our own 
physicians recommend to overtaxed business men, it, hevertheless, 
brings up the ultimate question of natural and permanent fitness. 
Suppose that all fear of African climate is eliminated from the mind 
of the white man. Suppose it is settled that he can survive there 
to a good old age, by using the precautions herein laid down. Will 
any traveler, climatologist or ethnologist arise and tell us that the 
white man can escape physical degeneracy in the tropics? As his 
African offspring come and go for a few generations, will there not 
be a gradual loss of the hardihood which temperate climates encour- 
age, and a gradual growth of that languor and effeminacy which 
equatorial climates engender? The presence of the white races in 
Africa can neither reverse the laws of their existence and growth, 
nor the laws which God has given to a tropical realm. Living- 
nature, including man, is simply obedience to an environment. We 
agree to this in the vegetable world. The oak of our forest is the 
puny lichen of the arctic regions. The palm of the tropics withers 
before northern frost. Reverse the order, and the lichen dries up 
beneath a tropical sun. The oak finds nothing congenial in African 
soil. As to the lower animals, it is the same. Stanley found both 
mule and donkey power ineffective on the Congo. Livingstone's 
mules were bitten by the tsetse fly on Nyassa and died a miserable 
death from ulcers. The horse dwindles away within the tropics. 
The camel fared no better than the mule with Livingstone, though 
the Arab may be said to have conquered the Great Sahara with it, and 



TitE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 55^ 

Col. Baker used it to overcome Nile distances whicli defied his 
boats. Even the native and trained buffalo was a failure with 
Livingstone when he attempted to make it a beast of burden through 
JSTyassaland and into the Upper Congo section, notwithstanding the 
fact that it had been invaluable to him below the tropics, and in the 
form of the native ox is in daily use as a beast of burden and travel 
in the Kalihari regions. So take the elephant, lion, leopard, hip- 
popotamus, alligator, soko, monkey, the birds, the fishes, and trans- 
port them north ; how quickly they cease to propagate, and in the 
end perish ! Thus far living nature seems to obey the immutable 
law of environment. It is equally so with the higher animal life 
which we find in man. The negroes, who were torn from their 
native soil by the cruel hand of slavery, could not be transplanted 
with success in latitudes remote from the tropics. It cannot yet be 
proved that the white races will deteriorate and grow effeminate in 
tropical Africa, but as to other tropical countries it is established 
that white energy is gradually lost in effeminacy wherever it per- 
sists in the unnatural attempt to face the eternal blaze of the equa- 
torial sun. 

It is well to study these things amid the glowing imagery of 
African vegetation, soil an(^ resource, the unseemly scamper of the 
nations for African possessions, the enthusiasm over Christian con- 
quest and heathen redemption. The real transforming power of 
the continent may not be at all in white occupancy ; it cannot be, 
if such occupancy means white degeneracy, or such a sacrifice as the 
situation does not warrant. But it may lie, more wholly than any 
one living suspects, in the natives themselves, assisted and encour- 
aged by the leaven of civilization, gradually introduced. They are 
there naturally and for a purpose. God will not alter his laws, and 
man cannot, brave as the latter may be, fond as he may be of pos- 
session and power, lustful as he may be of wealth, boastful as he 
may be of his civilization, proud as he may be of his humanitar- 
ianism, desirous as he may be to convert and Christianize. Africa 
means 200,000,000 of people, backed by a peculiar climate, fortified 
by an environment which is as old as the beginning of things. Let 
the civilization which is foreign to it all beware how it strikes it, 
lest, in the end, the effort prove a sad confession of failure. The 



554 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

good which is to come out of African elevation should be reciprocal. 
It is not good if it presupposes white occupancy followed hy white 
degeneracy. 

Centuries ago the brave, enthusiastic Saracen, propagandist of a 
a faith, warrior for the sake of Mohammed, left his Arabian home 
and went forth into pagan Africa on a mission of conquest and con- 
version. Granting that Egypt, the Barbary States and the Oases 
of the Sahara are better off" to-day than they were when they first 
caught sight of the victorious banners of tiie crescent, which is 
admitting all the truth will allow, how much superior to the 
chivalrous Saracen is the bigoted Mahdi, his depraved Soudan fol- 
lower, or the Arab slave stealer, who is ubiquitous in east- central 
Africa to-day ? There is a wonderful, a sad, descent from the 
Saracen conqueror to a benighted Mahdist. The contrast between 
a chief of Arabian troopers and such a chief as Tippoo Tib is enough 
to show degeneracy of the most ultra type. The brave, fiery 
Saracen, sweeping along the coasts and through the deserts, was a 
being infinitely superior to anything he came in contact with. His 
progeny, after centuries of acclimatization and intercourse with the 
native populations, is a lazy, inferior being, a curse to his surround- 
ings, not half such a man as the native whom he plunders and 
carries off as human booty. He has failed to lift Africa to the 
height of a Mohammedan civilization, and has descended to a level 
even lower than the paganism with which he came in contact. Do 
not forget that in many respects he had adaptation superier to that 
any European or American can claim. He was contiguous to 
Africa. He had been reared under a burning sun. His color was 
dark. His heath was sandy hke the sands of Egypt and Sahara. 
His ship was the camel which became the courser of the African 
wastes and by means of which he could connect the Nile bends 
more swiftly than we can do to-day with steamers. He had all the 
enthusiasm and persistency of a Cliristian missionary, all the ardor 
of an Enghsh merchant, all the vigor of a civilized pioneer, all the 
desire for possession of a monarchical potentate. Yet he degene- 
rated into a thief of men and a murderer of innocence. The least 
respected, the cruelest and most useless man on the face of the 
globe to-day is an Arab slave catcher. The chivalry of his fathers 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 6o6 

has no place in bis bosom. The industry and the sense of beauty 
and refinement which the Moor carried northward into Spain were 
utterly lost in the swing toward the tropics. The Allah and Koran 
of Mecca are profane mummery in the Soudan, at Zanzibar, and on 
the banks of Tanganyika. It is not necessary to inquire what 
inherent causes helped to contribute to this deplorable result. We 
know that vital defects existed in the Mohammedan system, and 
that these defects were in part to blame. The only inquiry we 
make is, how much of that result was due to the African climate, 
the impact with tropical peoples and customs, the equatorial envi- 
ronment? For some cause, or better still, for all causes combined, 
the last end of the Arab in Africa is worse than the first. 

If we study the impact on Africa of the Christian civilization of 
Portugal and even that of England, in its earlier stages, the result 
is not encouraging. The ruins of both trading and mission posts 
are sad witnesses of a misunderstanding of the true situation, or else 
monuments. of a surrender to climatic difficulties which had not 
been anticipated. Our civilization was called off from a mad chase 
after the impossible, and it required years, even centuries, of con- 
sideration, before it dared a second attempt. In the meantime it 
learned much and in various ways. Inert, supine Portugal taught 
valuable lessons by her very incapacity. Patient Holland gave a 
valuable object lesson by peaceable conquests and her amalgama- 
tion with the South African peoples. All-conquering, commercial 
and Christain England afterwards came along to gather the harvests 
which others had sowed, yet to prove that something valuable in 
the shape of permanent colonization could be effected south of the 
tropics, and with mutual advantage. The pioneering spirit broke 
out as it had never done before, and out of it came lesson after les- 
son, of which certainly none were more valuable than those 
furnished by Stanley's brave experiences. 

Whatever may be the future of the white race in Africa, it is 
certain that, just now, no consideration of climate, distance or inac- 
cessibility, weighs to cool the enthusiasm of Christianity as it 
marches to a conquest of heathenism in equatorial wilds. It is face 
to face with all the problems above stated and may be the means ot 
solving many of them favorably. It deserves a better fate than 



556 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

any that has hitherto befallen it. But the fate of all former out- 
bursts and experiments should prove a standing warning. Mission- 
aries are only men. The cause of God, as well as that of com- 
merce, agriculture, science and art, may be best subserved by using 
God's natural forces and observing his immutable laws. 

In a political sense, the mission of the white races in Africa has 
ever been a failure, and there is little transpiring at this hour, 
except the small beginnings of order and independence in the Congo 
Free State, but what is ominous of confusion and defeat. Greed for 
African possessions, jealousy of one another's territorial thefts, 
threatened wars on account of undefined boundaries, petty usurpa- 
tions of authority, these render unseemly the scramble for African 
acres, and bode no good to native Africans, whose allegiance is 
thereby rendered doubtful, Avhose fears are constantly at fever heat, 
who become as ready to train their spears and rush forth in battle 
arraj against one side or the other, as they are when their villages 
and gardens are invaded by neighboring tribes or marauding Arabs. 
They make colonization a farce, and reduce white dominancy to 
the level of cruel interference. The cold-blooded effrontery of this 
deliberate theft and partition of a continent, in a political sense, has 
nothing in morals to recommend it at any rate. There is nothing 
at the bottom of it except the aggrandizement of the Powers who 
commit the theft. Selfishness is the motive, however it may be 
glossed by the plea of a superior civilization. It regards no native 
rights, consults no native good, but in obedience to a spirit of 
tyranny and greed walks incontinently into the lands of a weak and 
helpless race, and appropriates them in true free-booting style, 
hoists its flag, and says to all comers, " Avaunt, this is mine! " 

The almost hopeless entanglement of foreign Powers in Africa 
to-day may be seen from a glance at the following " political sec- 
tions " on the west, or Atlantic coast : 

Spain Claims Morocco. 

France " a 

Spfiin " Opposite the Canaries. 

France " French Senegambia. 

Britain " British 

Portugal « Portuguese " 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 



557 



Britain 

Liberia 

France 

England 

France 

England 

Germany 

France 

Portugal 

International Commission 

Portugal 

Portugal 

Germany 

England 

Germany 

England 



Sierra Leone. 
A Republic. 
The Gold Coast. 

a u (( 

Dahomey. 

Niger. 

Cameroons. 

French Congo. 

Portuguese " 

The Congo Free State. 

Angola. 

Benguela. 

Angra Pequena. 

Walvisch Bay. 

Orange River. 

Cape of Good Hope. 



Some of these claims are old, some new; some are confirmed, 
some vapid ; some are direct political claims, some indirect, as 
wliere a protectorate only exists, and the real power is vested in a 
trading company, as in the British West African Company, with 
powers to occupy and develop the Niger country. 

Passing to the east coast of Africa we find the entanglement still 
worse. There are pretty well defined ownerships beyond the 
Trans-vaal, then comes Portugal's general claim of the Zambesi, 
Mozambique and Delagoa Bay, interfered with and overlapped by 
England and Germany. North of this, the Sultan of Zanzibar, who 
claimed sovereignty indefinitely north, south and west, has been 
cramped into a few island spaces along the coast, and graciously per- 
mitted to retain the Island of Zanzibar, because no person can live 
on it except Arabs and natives. Germany extends a protectorate 
and the country back of Zanzibar, and inland indefinite!}^, though 
England is by her side with a similar claim, and taking care that 
such protectorate shall be as nominal as possible. and shall not 
interfere with her claims upon the lake sections. Italy claims all 
between the German possessions and Abyssinia and has even invaded 
that State. These claims are made under the veneering of trad- 
ing companies, whose acquired rights, vague as they may be, the 
parent country is bound to back up. Not one of them have well 
defined metes and bounds for operations. All are confused and 
confusing, and liable to provoke misunderstanding and blood-shed at 



558 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

any moment, and the consequent disgrace of our boasted civiliza- 
tion, in tlie eyes of all simple minded Africans at least. 

As a sample of the latest methods of land acquisition in Africa, 
and the consequences, one has but to study the recent bout between 
England and Portugal. The latter country claims the Delagoa Bay 
section, Mozambique and the Zambesi, indefinitely inland, and this 
though her rule has been limited to two or three isolated spots. 
On the Zambesi she established two or three trading and missionary 
stations which were used for a long time, but gradually fell into dis- 
use. There is no dispute about her claims to the Zambesi section, 
though the Zulus south of the river do not recognize allegiance to 
her. The Zambesi, to a point five miles above the mouth of the 
Shir^, was declared a free river by the Berlin conference, so that 
there can be no dispute about that. So, there is no disposition to 
interfere with her claims to Mozambique or Delagoa, except as to 
their western boundary. To permit her to extend her claim to 
these territories westward till they met the boundaries of the Congo 
Free State, would be to give her possession of the Shird Eiverj 
Lake Shirwah and Lake Nyassa. Now starting at the Euo affluent 
of the Shird, England claims the entire Nyassa section, both by 
right of discovery — Livingstone discovered the lake — and occupa- 
tion. Its non-native people are British subjects. She may not 
have taken the precaution to acquire rights of the natives by 
treaties, but neither has Portugal. Portugal never expanded, so to 
speak, beyond the coast on the line of the Zambesi, never did any- 
thing for the natives, and is charged with conniving with the slave 
trade. On the contrary, the established church of Scotland has 
many missionaries, teachers and agents in the Shire Highlands. 
The Free Church of Scotland has several missionaries, teachers and 
artisans on Lake Nyassa. The Universities Mission has a steamer 
on the lake and several missionary agents. The African Lakes 
Company, chartered in England, has steamers on the Shir^ river 
and Lake Nyassa, with twelve trading stations, manned by twenty- 
five agents. British capital invested in Nyassaland will equal 
$1,000,000. In his "Title Deeds to Nyassaland," Rev. Horace 
Waller says: " Dotted here and tliere, from the mangrove swamps 
of the Kongone mouth of the Zambesi to the farthest extremity of 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 559 

Lake Njassa, we pass the graves of naval officers, of brave ladies, of 
a missionary bishop, of clergymen, of foreign representatives, 
doctors, scientific men, engineers and mechanics. All these were our 
countrymen. They lie in glorious graves. Their careers have been 
foundation stones, and already the edifice rises. British mission 
stations are working at high pressure on the Shire Highlands and 
upon the shores of Nyassa. Numbers of native Christians owe their 
knowledge of the common faith to their efforts. Scores of future 
chiefs are being instructed in schools spread over hundreds of miles. 
Commerce is developing by sure and steady steps. A vigorous 
company is showing to the tribes and nations that there are more 
valuable commodities in their country than their sons and 
daughters." 

In view of all these things, and perhaps spurred to activity by 
them, Portugal, following the fashion of England, organized a 
South African Company with the intention of consolidating her 
African possessions, by operating from the east coast, with a base 
at Delagoa Bay, Mozambique and the mouth of the Zambesi. The 
announcement, lately made, that Mapoonda, chief of the natives in 
the Shird River District — the Shire River flows into the Zambesi 
from the north, and is the outlet of Lake Nyassa — had accepted 
Portuguese sovereignty, was a distinctive victory for the Portu- 
guese in their contest with the British for the control of that section 
of the Dark Continent. In July, 1889, Mr. H. H. Johnston, an 
experienced African traveller and naturalist, and British consul at 
Mozambique, took passage with several British naval officers on a 
gunboat, which went up the Chinde mouth of the Zambesi and 
entered the Shire river. At a point 100 miles north of its mouth, 
where the Rao enters the Shir*^, Consul Johnston on the 12th of 
August " performed the significent act of hoisting the British flag 
at the Ruo station, henceforth marking the limit of Portuguese 
authority." This was intended to close Portugal out of Lake 
Nyassa, the extreme southern point of which is 150 miles north of 
Ruo. By securing Mapoonda, however, Portugal took actual pos- 
session of the territory immediately to the south of Lake Nyassa. 
The English expedition in going up the river passed Major Serpa 
Pinto, the Portuguese leader, with a force of about 700 Zulus under 



560 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

his command. Serpa Pinto was on his way to take possession of 
Nyassaland. Consul Johnston protested, and assured liim that, if 
he persisted in his purpose, he would bring about a rupture between 
Portugal and England. Serpa Pinto finally promised to turn back, 
but as soon as Consul Johnston had moved forward the Portuguese 
commander resumed his march to Lake Nyassa, and when he 
reached Mapoonda, which commands the southern entrance to the 
lake, threw up fortifications there and began preparations for a 
battle with the neighboring Makololo, in which the latter were 
routed with great slaughter. This battle appears to have been 
decisive, and to have led the native chiefs to transfer their nominal 
allegiance from the British to the Portuguese with alarming rapidity. 
By securing Mapoonda as an ally, the Portuguese cut off England's 
communications with Lake Nyassa via the Zambesi and Shir^ 
rivers, and precipitated the crisis which was threatened by the 
recent Portuguese proclamation which assumed to annex the whole 
Zambesi region. 

This controversy which has already ended in the defeat of Portu- 
guese designs, and which could have ended in no other way, because 
England is the stronger and more rapacious power, brings into play 
all the old arguments respecting colonial ambitions and enterprises. 
It will be remembered that for nearly two hundred years after the 
discovery of America, the European powers were a unit over the 
doctrine that first discovery gave a title to the discoverer. But 
when Great Britain awoke to the fact that this doctrine, if rigidl}'- 
applied, would virtually dispossess her of American soil, notwith- 
standing the additional fact that she was proving to be the best 
permanent colonizer in Europe, she originated the new doctrine 
that actual possession of and settlement in a newly discovered 
country created a higher title than that of first discovery. This 
was a safe doctrine to adopt respecting America, for even then the 
English grip was now so strong as to be unshakable, and it v/as 
equally safe as to any other British claim, for the ocean supremacy 
of France, Spain and Portugal, her real rivals, was on the wane and 
hers was on the increase. 

So now, notwithstanding the claim of Portugal to her territory 
on both the African coasts, by right of discovery, England does not 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 561 

hesitate to enter the Njassa and Shire region, hoist her flag and 
claim the rights of sovereignty, on the ground that she is the first 
permanent occupant. The fact that she has tangible interests to 
protect — invested property, missions etc., serves to strengthen her 
attitude with other European powers. But aside from this she does 
not intend to let Portugal establish a permanent possession clear 
across •Africa from the Atlantic, at Angola and Benguella, to the 
mouth of the Zambesi. Such a possession would simply cut the 
continent in two, and erect a barrier on the east coast to that union 
of the British African possessions which her foreign diplomacy 
designs. Moreover, it is fully settled in the mind of Great Britain 
that the Nile water-way and its extensions through Lakes Albert 
and Edward Nyanza, Tanganyika, Nyassa, and the Shir^ and Zam- 
besi rivers, are hers, even if force has to be applied to make them 
actually hers. 

But it must be said on behalf of Portugal, that she is not resting 
her rights on the ancient fiction of discovery alone. Her occupancy 
of the Zambesi region has, of late, become quite distinct and her 
vested rights have assunied impressive proportions. The manage- 
ment of her affairs are in the hands of Major Alberto da Rocha 
Serpa Pinto, whose exertions have greatly strengthened the Portu- 
guese claims. His achievements in the way of African exploration 
give him high rank as a traveler, explorer, scientist and organizer. 
He was born in 1845 and educated for the Portuguese military 
service. In 1869 he first went to Africa, where he took part in the 
campaign against the rebellious chief Bonga, in the region of the 
Zambesi. He acquitted himself with distinction on the field of 
battle, and acquired wide repute as an explorer, by ascending the 
river as far as the Victoria Falls, making many important discov- 
eries on the way, and crossing the African continent from one side 
to the other. 

Upon his return to Portugal, Serpa Pinto was received personally 
by the King, who was first to greet him when entering the harbor; 
Lisbon and Oporto were brilliantly illuminated in his honor, and he 
received many honors and marks of distinction from the sovereign 
and public bodies. 

In ISTovember, 1877, Serpa Pinto was again sent to Africa by the 



562 THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 

Portuguese Government and the Lisbon Geographical Society in 
conjunction. He organized a force of fourteen soldiers and fifty- 
seven carriers, and, starting from Benguella, he penetrated to the 
interior, traversing the districts of Dombe, Guillenguez, and Cac- 
onda, reaching Bih^ in March of the following year. He was finally 
laid low with fever and carried by his faithful followers to the coast. 
Two of his subordinates, Brito Capello and Ivens, who have since 
become eminent as explorers, left the expedition in the interior, 
journeying to the northward to explore the river Quanza, while 
Serpa Pinto went to the eastward. On his return to Lisbon he was 
received with evidences of great esteem by the King, and was the 
object of popular adulation in all quarters. He described the 
sources of four great rivers heretofore unknown. His discovery of 
the river Coando, navigable for 600 miles and flowing into the 
Zambesi, alone placed Major Pinto in the rank of the great African 
explorers. After remaining in Portugal a few years, Serpa Pinto 
agaia returned to Africa, where he has since remained. In 1884, 
he made another extended journey of exploration, the results of 
which fully entitled him to the title of the Portuguese Stanley. 

Following his discoveries the Portugese have built a short rail- 
road inland from Delagoa, and have established a system of steam 
navigation on the Zambesi and Shire rivers, and opened a large 
and prosperous trading establishment. Tlie activity recently dis- 
played by the British in southeast Africa has led them to push 
forward their advantages and seize everything they can lay their 
hands on while the opportunity offers. 

Commenting on this situation the London Times calls it " Major 
Serpa Pinto's gross outrage on humanity and intolerable affront to 
England," to which an American paper very appropriately replies : — 

"Nothing would suit the English better than to have some 
excuse for wrenching away from little Portugal her possessions on 
the Dark Continent. England has played the cuckoo so many 
times with impunity that now it is believed a quickened public con- 
science will call a halt. 

"The merits of this particular case will hardly exert much influ- 
ence in determining the fate of Portugal in Africa. Left to them- 
selves, England would dispossess Portugal in the twinkling of an 



THE WHITE MAN IN AFRICA. 568 

eye, for if Turkej'' is the sick man of Eastern Europe, Portugal is 
the national personification of senility in the West, Four or five 
hundred years ago it was the foremost nation of Europe in point of 
commercial enterprise. The ships of Portugal were the most 
adventuresome of any that ploughed the ocean. As long ago as 
11:19 a bold Portuguese tar, Zarco, skirted along Western Africa, far 
below the Equator, and later, Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of 
Good Hope. Like Columbus, he sought the most direct route to 
India, and what the Genoese missed he found. The country which 
England is now impatiently eager to steal from Portugal is a part 
of the reward of that enterprise which revolutionized Oriental 
trade, and was second in importance to the world only to the dis- 
covery of America. It was as if both sought a silver mine, and the 
one who failed to find what they were after came upon a gold mine. 
Portugal may not have made very much use of her discovery for 
herself and her people, but mankind has been immeasurably bene- 
fited, and England incalculably enriched. For the latter to now 
turn around and rob Portugal of her African possessions, in whole 
or in part, would be poetic injustice. It would be the old fable 
over again of the farmer who warmed a snake in his bosom only to 
be bitten by it." 




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Mi??ionai'i| Wor^l^ in Africa. 



IT is not alone as a commercial, scientific and political field tliat 
Africa attracts attention. No country presents stronger claims on 
tlie attention of Christian pliilanthropists. The Arabs entered 
Africa as propagandists of Islamism. The Portuguese advent 
was signalized by the founding of Catholic missions. When they 
arrived off' the mouth- of the Congo, in 1490, the native king, 
" seated on a chair of ivory, raised on a platform, dressed in glossy, 
highly colored skins and feathers, with a fine head-dress made of 
palm fibre, gave permission to the strangers to settle in his domin- 
ions, to build a church, and to propagate the Christian religion. 
The King himself and all his Chiefs were forthwith baptised, and 
the fullest scope was allowed to the Eoman Catholic missionaries 
who accompanied the expedition to prosecute their appointed 
work. " 

Thus runs an old chronicle. It is valuable as showing the antiquity 
of Christian interest in Africa, as well as showing the fine opportu- 
nity then presented for introducing the gospel into benighted lands„ 
We say fine opportunity, because Portugal was then a power, able 
and willing to second every effort of the church, and the church 
itself was well equiped for missionary work. Its zeal was untiring. 
Its fomula was calculated to impress the African mind. The 
regalia of its priesthood was captivating. Its music was pleasing 
and inspiring. But the sequel proved that something was wrong. 
The priesthood laboured arduously, establishing missions, baptizing 
the natives by the thousand, adapting their ceremonies and proces- 
sions to heathen rites and superstitions. The process was not that 
of lifting pagan souls to a high Christian level, so much as a 

(565) 



BQ6 MISSIONARY WORE IN AFRICA. 

lowering of Christian principles to a heatlien level. Then the 
church was too dependent on, too intimate with, the state. 
Even Pertuguese historians admit that physical force was frequently 
employed to bring the natives more completely under the will of the 
priests. The accounts given of some of the floggings which took 
place, both of males and female, would be alternately shocking and 
ludicrous, but for the fact that they were associated with the propa- 
gation of religion. Also, both church and state contenanced the 
crime of slavery, and fattened on the infernal traffic. The ultimate 
result of such a system might have been easily forseen. After a 
long career of so-called missionary success, during which hundreds 
of mission stations were founded on the entire western and on 
great part of the eastern coast of Africa, and many even far inland, 
the priests fell under the jealousy of the chiefs, clashed with them 
respecting polygamy and various other customs, and were finally 
forced back with the receding wave of European influence, when the 
power of Portugal began to wane. Within one hundred years of 
the above described arrival of the Portuguese missionaries off the 
mouth of the Congo, no trace of the labors of Cathohc missionaries 
could be found and no tradition among the natives that they had 
ever been there. The finest mission stations elsewhere had fallen 
into ruins, and only those remained which were near ports of entry 
and fortified commercial points. 

It may be truthfully said that missionary work in Africa lay as if 
dead till the spirit of African discovery was revived in England by 
the formation of the British African Association, in the latter pai*t 
of the eighteenth century. Even its first pioneers were not mission- 
aries, but rather explorers in a commercial and scientific sense. They 
were, however, philanthropic christian men, and the problem of evan- 
gelizing Africa was ever present in their minds. Among them were 
Leyard, Major Houghton, Mungo Park who met his death on the 
Upper Niger, Frederic Horeman, Mr. Mcholls, Prof Koentgen, Mr. 
James Eiley, Captain Tuckey who manned the first Congo expedi- 
tion in 1816, Captain Gray and Major Laing, Richie and Lyon, Den- 
ham and Clapperton who pierced Bornou and visited Lake Tchad, 
Laing and Caillie whose glowing descriptions of Timbuctoo were 
read with dehght. 



MISSION-AHY WORK m AFRICA. 567 

These were followed at a later period by Richard and John Lan- 
der who really solved the problem of the Niger, and by Laird and 
Oldfield and Coulthurst and Davidson. Now came a time, 1841, 
when broader sympathies were enlisted. An expedition was organ- 
ized under the direction and at the expense of the British Govern- 
ment which was not merely to explore the interior of the vast Con- 
tinent, promote the interests of art and science, but check the slave 
trade, introduce legitimate commerce, advance civilization and social 
improvement, and thus prepare the way for the introduction of Chris- 
tianity. For this purpose, treaties were to be formed with native 
princes, agriculture was to be encouraged, and Christian missions 
were to be established. Two missionaries went along, Rev. Messrs. 
MuUer and Schon. The expedition began the ascent of the river 
Niger, but was soon forced to return. Failure was written over the 
enterprise, and the cause was the deadly climate, which had been 
too little studied in advance. African enterprise in the north again 
fell back on pioneering exploits, and we have the splendid researches 
of Earth, Krapf and Rebman in 1849, and in 1857 those still more 
brilliant efforts of Burton and Speke, who entered the continent 
from Zanzibar, on the east, and brought to light the mystery of 
Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika. Following these came Baker, 
and then the immortal Livingstone, who united the pioneer and the 
missionary. 

Livingstone entered Africa in 1840, under the auspices of the 
London Missionary Society, and founded a missionary station at 
Kolobeng, South Africa, 200 miles north of the Moffat station at 
Kuruman. Pie married Rev. Robert Moffat's daughter, and was 
thus doubly fortified for missionary work. He labored earnestly 
and faithfully in his field till driven by the hostility of the Boers to 
provide himself another mission further north and beyond the great 
Kalahari desert. After suffering untold hardships iu his trip across 
the desert, he discovered Lake Ngami, decided that it would be a 
good base for further missionary work; and then returned for his 
wife. A third time he crossed the desert, which had been regarded 
as impassable, and this time with his family. It was the year 1851. 
He reached the river Chobe after a hard struggle, his animals having 
perished under the bites of the poisonous tsetse fly. Here he entered 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 

the kingdom of Sebituane, the renowned warrior, whose favor he 
had previously secured. But that chieftain had died, and his suc- 
cessor detained Livingstone for a time. When a permit was 
obtained to go where he pleased, he pushed on 130 miles to Ses- 
heke, and thence to the Zambesi, in the center of the continent, in 
the country of the famed Macololos. But finding the country too 
unhealthy for a permanent mission, he returned to Cape Town, 
whence he planned and carried to success a journey back to the 
Zambezi, and westward, through the Macololos and other tribes, to 
Loanda in Angola, quite across the continent. This was in 1852. 
This journey came about because, when at Cape Town, he learned of 
the total destruction of his parent mission station at Kolobeng by 
the Boers. This left him -without a pastoral charge, but it proved 
a turning point in his life. Henceforth the field of adventure and 
exploration was his, and he easily became the most noted of African 
travelers, till Stanley established for himself a greater fame. What 
the Church lost a whole world gained. His further travels, how he 
lost and buried his faithful wife on the banks of the Shire, his own 
sad death in the swamps of Lake Bangweola, the return of his dead 
boby to Zanzibar, borne by his faithful servants Chuma and Susi, 
have all been described elsewhere in this volume. 

The recent advance of the Portuguese toward the head- waters of 
the Zambesi, and their reduction of the Macololo territory to a Por- 
tuguese possession, together with the complications with other ambi- 
tious nations of Europe, likely to grow out of it, bring that strange 
Central African people again into prominence. The region was 
made known, in olden times, by the Portuguese traveler, Silva Porto, 
who described it as fertile, and the people as of divided tribes. But 
Livingstone describes the section as the empire of the Macololos, and 
gives many glowing descriptions of the people, their rulers, products 
and possessions. He was well received by them, Hked their country, 
and left a profound impression among them, for Major Serpa Pinto, 
in his visit many years afterwards, foimd Livingstone's name men- 
tioned everywhere among the then detached and demoralized tribes 
with respect. 

According to Livingstone, the powerful Basuto tribe, south of the 
Zambesi, crossed to the north side under the lead of their chief, 




CHUMA AND SUSI. 



570 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 



Chibitano, and reduced the numerous tribes who inhabited the vast 
stretches of country as far as the river Cuando. Chibitano gave to 
his army, formed of different elements, and to his conquered peoples, 
made up of a variety of origins, the name of Cololos, hence the word 
Macololos, so well known throughout Africa. This powerful war- 
rior and legislator held his conquered tribes as brethren in one com- 
mon interest till his death, when they began to set up independent 




KING LOBOSSI. 

empires. In this disintegration the Luinas, under King Lobossi, 
came to the front, and are yet the most powerful of the Macololos. 
Pinto says that the Macololo empire is now composed of a mongrel 
crew — Calabares, Luinas, Ganguellas, and Macalacas — all given to 
drunkenness and moral brutishness. They are polygamous and 
deep in the slave traffic. Their country — 200 miles long and over 
50 wide — is full of villages and fine plantations. The Luina herds 



MISSIONAEY WORK IlST AFRICA. 571 

cover tlie plains of the upper Zambesi, and no finer cattle are to be 
found in Africa. Lakes abound, and while they contribute to mala- 
rial diseases, they give a rich variety of fish. The men do not take 
readily to farming, but the women are wonderful milkmaids and 
vegetable raisers. As a people, they are skillful iron- workers and 
wood-carvers, and expert at pottery work. They cultivate tobacco 
for snuff, but smoke only hangue. They dress fuller and better 
than most Central African people, and some of their garbs are quite 
fantastic. 

Prof. Henry Drummond, of Glasgow, in a lecture on " The Heart 
of Africa," gives a vivid description of the perils which beset 
missionary life in the Zambesi regions : 

As his boat swept along the beautiful lake Nyassa, he no'ticed in 
the distance a few white objects on the shore. On closer inspection, 
they were found to be wattle and daub houses, built in English 
style and whitewashed. Heading his boat for the shore, he landed 
and began to examine what seemed to be the home of a little 
English colony. The first house he entered gave evidence of recent 
occupancy, everything being in excellent order ; but no human form 
was to be seen or human voice to be heard. The stillness of death 
reigned. He entered the school-house. The benches and desks 
were there, as if school had been but recently dismissed ; but neither 
teachers nor scholars were to be seen. In the blacksmith shop the 
anvil and hammer stood ready for service, and it seemed as if the 
fire had just gone out upon the hearth ; but no blacksmith could be 
found. Pushing his investigations a little further, he came upon 
four or five graves. These little mounds told the whole story and 
explained the desolation he had seen. Within them reposed the 
precious dust of some of the missionaries of Livingstonia, who one 
by one had fallen at their post, victims of the terrible African fever. 
Livingstonia was Scotland's answer in part to the challenge which 
Henry M. Stanley gave to the Christian world to send missionaries 
to eastern equatorial Africa. When that intrepid explorer, after 
untold hardship, had found David Livingstone, and during months 
of close companionship had felt the power of that consecreted life, 
he blew the trumpet with no uncertain sound to rouse the church to 
her privilege and responsibility in central Africa. But it was not 



572 MISSIOKAEY WOEK IN AFRICA. 

till the death of tlie great missionarj explorer, that the land which 
gave him birth resolved to send a little army of occupation to the 
region which he had opened to the Christian world. On the 18th 
of January, 1875, at a pubhc meeting held in the city of Glasgow, 
the Free, the Eeformed, and the United Presbyterian churches of 
Scotland founded a mission, to be called Livingstonia, and which 
was to be located in the region of Lake Nyassa, the most southern 
of the three great lakes of central Africa, with a coast of eight 
hundred miles. Although founded by the churches just named, 
it was understood that it was to be regarded as a Free Church mis- 
sion, the others co-operating with men and means as opportunity 
offered or necessity required. 

The choice of location was most appropriate, not only because 
■Dr. Livingstone had discovered that beautiful sheet of water, but 
because he had requested the Free Church to plant a mission on its 
shores. The first company of missionaries, which included also rep- 
resentatives of the Established Church, who were to found a separate 
mission in the lake region, after immense toil and severe hardship, 
reached the lake, via the Zambesi and Shire rivers, October 12th, 
1875. They selected a site near Cape Maclear as their first settle- 
ment, and as soon as possible put into operation the various parts of 
the mission work they had been commissioned to prosecute — indus- 
trial, educational, medical and evangelistic. From the first the 
mission met with encouraging success, becoming not only a center 
of gospel light to that benighted region, but also a city of refuge to 
which the wretched natives fled to escape the inhuman cruelties of 
the slave traders. As the years rolled on, however, it was found 
necessary to remove the main work of the mission to a more health- 
ful region on the lake — hence the desolation seen by Prof. Drum- 
mond — ^the work at Cape Maclear being now mainly evangelistic 
and carried on by native converts. The mission still lives and com- 
prises four stations, one of which is situated on the Stevenson Koad, 
a road constructed at a cost of $20,000 by an English philanthropist, 
and intended to promote communication between Lakes Nyassa and 
Tanganyika. 

^ After this diversion, forced upon the reader by reason of Living- 
stone's dual missionary and pioneering work, we turn again to the 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA, 573 

north of Africa, and to historic Egypt. Comparatively little has 
been done in this land by Cliristendom for the evangelization of its 
degraded population. Wesley an missionaries were stationed at 
Alexandria in the early part of the century, but tlie field proved 
unpropitious and they were removed to a more promising sphere of 
labor. Even the Church of England, now most in favor there, has 
not achieved much in the way of Christianizing the people. Perhaps 
the American United Presbj^terians have been most successful in 
this uninviting field. They have several missionaries there, 
numerous lay agents, over a score of stations and schools, and quite 
a following of converts and pupils. The Khedive has granted them 
toleration and valuable concessions. The Church of Scotland 
sustains one mission and several prosperous schools at Cairo, in 
Egypt. 

In Nubia, the Mohammedan religion is so firmly fixed, that mis- 
sionary effort has been almost entirely discouraged. 

The Abyssinians boast of their relationship to King Solomon, 
resulting from the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Jerusalem. They 
also claim to have received their Christianity from its fountain head 
in Judgea, on the return of the Ethiopian eunuch to the Court of 
Queen Candace, after his conversion to the faith of the Gospel by 
Philip, the Evangelist. Whatever truth there may be in these tra- 
ditions, it is a fact that the religion of the country is a species of 
Christianity, combined with certain Judaic observances, as circum- 
cision, abstinence from meat, keeping of Saturday as the Sabbath, 
and also with many Catholic forms, as reverence for the Virgin, tlie 
calendar of saints, etc. As a missionar}'' field the Catholics were 
the first to enter Abyssinia in 1620, and they succeeded in persuad- 
ing the king to declare Catholicism to be the religion of the State. 
This bold step, however, occasioned civil wars which ended in their 
expulsion from the country. Jesuit missionaries from France came 
later, but they were also banished. 

The Church of England Missionary Society in 1829 sent out two 
missionaries. Others followed, but little was accomplished. The 
well known German missionary, Herr Flad, has accomplished quite 
a work in recent times. The defeat and murder of the Abyssinian 
king was one of the sad events of 1888. It followed successful 



574 ■ MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

invasions of the country and tlie slaughter and enslavement of large 
numbers of Abyssinians in 1885 and 1886by the Mahdists, and 
their defeat by King John in 1887. Herr Flad transmitted a letter 
to the British and Foreign Anti -Slavery Society from Christian 
Abyssinians, which is a most earnest and pathetic appeal for help 
from their fellow Christians and such help as will prevent their 
enslavement and the entire desolation of their country. Very per- 
tinently these people, whose liberties and lives are in such imminent 
danger, inquire of Christians in other lands, after depicting the 
desolation of their own, the selling of thousands of people into 
slavery, and the cruel butchery of other thousands, " Why should 
fanatic and brutal Moslems be allowed to turn a Christian land like 
Abyssinia into a desert, and to extirpate Christianity from 
Ethiopia?" They close with this earnest plea: "For Christ's 
sake make known our sad lot to our brethren and sisters in Chris- 
tian lands, who fear God and love the brethren." While Abyssinian 
Christianity may not be without spot, Abyssinians are God's men 
and women. 

Later missionary letters to the London Anti-Slavery Society say 
that the Mahdists have made Western Abyssinia a desert. Whole 
flocks and herds have been destroyed, thousands of Christians have 
been thrown into slavery, thousands of others have been butchered, 
and hundreds of the noblest inhabitants have been taken to Mecca 
as slaves in violation of treaties. 

The English gunboat Osprey recently captured three cargoes of 
slaves off the island of Perim, which guards the Aden entrance to 
the Eed Sea. When brought to the Admiralty Court at Aden they 
proved to be about 217 in number, chiefly Abyssinian boys and 
girls from 10 to 20 years of age, captured by the fierce Mohammedan 
Gallas, and run across to Mocha to be sold to the Mohammedans. 
The Foreign Missionary Committee in Scotland appeal for a special 
Rescued Slaves' Fund for the support and Bible education of these 
captives. 

In Barca, Tripoli, Fezzan, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, known 
as the Barbary States, owing to the exclusive character of the 
Moslem faith, all missionary effort for the evangelization of the 
general population has been precluded until recently. A note from 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 575 

Edward H. SJenn j, secretary of the North Africa Mission, says Jan. 
26, 1889 : " I have just returned from visiting most of the mission- 
aries connected within the North Africa Mission in Morocco, Algeria 
and Tunis. The prospect among the Mohammedans is encourag- 
ing and we are hoping to send out more laborers. There are now 
forty-one on our staff, and two more leave us in a week. We are 
now proposing to take up work among the Europeans as well as 
the Mohammedans, and also establish a station in Tripoli, which is 
quite without the Gospel." 

Algeria was occupied in some measure in 1881, Morocco in 1884, 
Tunis' in 1885 and in 1889. Mr. Michell, who has been working in 
Tanis, accompanied by Mr. Harding, who left England February 1, 
landed in Tripoli the 27th. Thus far they are getting on well. 
They find the people more bigoted than in Tunis. Besides the work 
they may be able to do in the city and neighborhood, they will be 
able to send some Scriptures by the caravans leaving for the Soudan 
which, with the blessing of God, will spread the light around Lake 
Tchad. 

A correspondent of The Ohristian^ (London) writing from Gib- 
raltar, says : " We have had very cheering news from Morocco. 
A wonderful work has sprung up among the Spanish and Jewish 
people of Tangier. Meetings, commenced two or three months ago, 
have been held in Spanish, addressed through an interpreter by 
some brethren of the North African Mission, and there has been an 
intense eagerness to hear the truth. The Holy Spirit has carried 
home the Gospel message with conviction to many hearts, and a few 
days ago the bi-etliren informed me that seventeen Jewish and Span- 
ish converts were baptized, and others were waiting for baptism. 
The meetings have been crowded night after night, so much so that 
the friends in Tangier contemplate hiring a music-hall, at present 
used for midnight revelry and sin. This revival has aroused the 
enmity of both rabbi and priest, consequently bittei- persecution has 
followed. Several Jewish inquirers have been beaten in the syna- 
gogue, converts have been dismissed from their employment, and 
the priests have offered bribes and made threats to the Spanish con- 
verts to induce them to cease attending the meetings, but so far the 
converts are holding firm," 



576 MISSIONARY WOKK IN AFRICA. 

E. F. Baldwin is meeting with great success in Morocco. He 
writes from Tangier : 

" We have had great encouragement in the work here. For some 
two months we have had nightly meetings for inquirers and young 
converts, attended by from ten to twenty. Many have received 
Christ as their personal Saviour and have been at once baptized. 
For some weeks most of my time was occupied from morning until 
night talking with interested ones who visited me, and daily there 
would be natives in my room much of the time. At times conver- 
sions occurred daily. All of them are brought out of Moham- 
medan darkness. They all renounce that false religion formally at 
their baptism. Almost all are young men, some of good position, 
but most of them from among the poor. There is not one who has 
not prayed and spoken in our meetings from tbe day of his con- 
version. 

"Two of the earliest converts are in the mountains traveling on 
foot without purse, scrip or pay, preaching in both' Arabic and 
Shillah. They have been away now several weeks. Others, whose 
faces we have never seen, have been converted in distant places 
through one from here, and write us of many others believing 
through their word. We have reason to believe the Gospel has 
taken root in several places in Southern Morocco within these few 
weeks. Two others of our number are arranging to start at once 
to preach in another direction. Mr. Martain and I are also leaving 
as soon as we can get away, and will travel also as Christ com- 
manded, on foot and without purse or scrip." 

Later he writes from Mogador : " For upwards of a year new 
accessions have been constant, and every one baptized has 
renounced Mohammedanism. For a time the work was seemingly 
much hindered by severe persecution, imprisonment, beating, dis- 
owning, banishment — these are all too familiar to the converts here 
in Southern Morocco. But when it was impossible to work longer 
here in Mogador we travelled and preached, going literally on the 
methods laid down in Matthew x, which we hold with, we find, 
increasing numbers of God's children, to be of perpetual obligation. 
We have found them to contain the deep and matchless wisdom of 
God for missionary effort. Several others besides myself, including 



MISSIOJSTAEY WOEK IN AFRICA. 577 

recently converted natives, are so travelling. The natives knowing 
no other methods, have gone gladly forth, without purse or scrip, 
on foot, taking nothing, and marvellous blessing in the wa};- of con- 
version has followed the step of their simple faith. They go with 
no thought of pay or salary. The Father makes their simple needs 
His care. My own position as an unattached missionary, depen- 
dent only on God for temporal supplies (which, blessed be His 
name, He ceaselessly supplies), enables one to consistently instruct 
these native Christians in the principles and methods of Mathew x, 
and encourage them to go forth upon them. 

"It is to this return to these first principles of mission work I 
attribute the constant flow of blessing we are having, and which is 
so exceptional in Mohammedan fields. I earnestly recommend 
them to others who may have the faith and are so circumstanced as 
to practice them. I say this without any reflection upon the more 
ordinary and accepted lines of mission endeavor. The field is vast 
and the need great, and by all and every means let the Gospel be 
preached. 

" Just now the vigilance of our persecutors and adversaries has 
somewhat relaxed, and our frequent meetings (sixteen in Arabic 
and eight in English per week,) are well attended and we are 
cheered by more conversions. Several are just presenting them- 
selves for baptism. Last night one of the most intelligent and best 
educated Moors I have ever met, publicly confessed Christ for the 
first time — both speaking and praying (as all the native Christiana 
do from the hour of their conversion) in our meeting before many 
witnesses. He is one of the few 'honorable ' ones who have been 
won. We trust he may become a veritable Paul. He was some 
months since arrested and thrown into prison on the suspicion ot 
being a Christian, which at that time he was not. His feet, like 
Joseph's, 'they hurt with fetters,' the scars of which he will never 
cease to carry. Poor fellow ! Pie was then without the comfort 
that comes to a child of God in affliction, and yet enduring reproach 
for Christ. But God blessed his dreary sojourn in prison to his 
soul, and it contributed to his conversion. 

"Some from among the few resident Europeans and from among 
37 



578 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

the Jews also have turned to the Lord and confessed Him in 
baptism. 

"Tidings from different places in the interior, where the word of 
life has been carried from here, tell us of many turning from 
Mohammed's cold, hard, false faitli, to the love and light the Gospel 
brings them. May not all this encourage the zeal and faith of 
scattered workers toiling in these hard Moslem fields? 

"Some new workers, all committed to Mathew x lives, have just 
joined us. There are now six of us here, all men of course, with 
our lives given up to toil for Christ under his primitive instruc- 
tions. A band is forming in Ayershire, Scotland, of others who 
will come to us soon, we trust. Others in different places are 
greatly interested. We hope to have many natives together here 
in the summer months for training in the Word, that they may 
afterwards go forth two by two, without purse or scrip." 

Alfred S. Lamb writes as follows: 

" Within four days' journey of Britain one may land on African 
soil and find a large field — almost untouched — for Christian labor 
among the natives of Algeria, the Kabyles. Visiting recently 
among these people, and making known to them, for the first time, 
the glad tidings of salvation, I Avas much struck with the atten- 
tion given to the message. Doubtless the novelty of an English- 
man speaking to them in their own unwritten language, and 
delivering such a message as a free salvation without works, was 
sufficient of itself to call forth such attention. Seated one evening 
in a Kabyle house, I was greatly delighted with the readiness to 
listen to the Gospel. The wonderful story of tiie resurrection of 
Lazarus was being read, when my host announced that supper was 
ready, and when I liked I could have it brought up. Having 
expressed a desire to finish the narrative, the little company of 
Mohammedans continued to give the utmost attention to the words 
read and spoken. Supper ended, the conversation was renewed. 
One of our company, an honorable Marabout or religious Moham- 
medan, who, because of having made a pilgrimage to Mecca, was 
called Elhadj, entertained us while he read from an Arabian tract. 
The man showed us, with evident pride, a book in Arabic (I pre- 
sume a portion of Scripture,) given him two years ago in Algiers 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 



579 



bj a Christian English lady who was distributing tracts among the 
people. Frequently during that evening's conversation, my state- 
ments were met by the words, "You are right," "Truly." That 
night I had two sharing the sleeping apartment with me. Having 
seen me bow the knee in prayer, one of them asked me afterward 
if I had been praying. Eeplying that I had, he added, " May God 
answer your prayer! " 

The north of Africa, so long neglected by the missionaries, 
seems now to share in the interest that has been awakened in the 
whole continent. 

We come now to the west coast. Western Africa is divided 
into numerous petty States, in all of which the most degrading 
superstition and idolatry, with their usual concomitants of lawless- 
ness and cruelty, are the outstanding features. The entire popula- 
tion was no doubt pagan at no very remote period; but in modern 
times the religion of Mohammed has extensively prevailed, having 
been jealously propagated with fire and sword by northern tribes 
of Arab descent. But there is not so much difference between the 




WEST AFRICAN MUSSULMAN. 

Mohammedianism and paganism of the negroes as many suppose. 
The distinction is rather nominal than real, so far as the moral con- 
duct of the people is concerned. All profess to believe in the 
existence of God, if a confused notion of a higher power may be so 
designated; but all are entirely ignorant of the character and claims 
of the Divine Being, and exceedingly superstitious. The African 
Mussulman repeats the prayers, and observes the feasts and cere- 
monies prescribed in the Koran, but he has quite as much, if not 
more faith, in his charms and amulets, or greegrees. 



580 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

Paganism in West Africa is known by the name of " fetishism." 
It assumes different forms in the various tribes. It is to a large 
extent a system of devil worship, in connection with which the 
belief in witchcraft plays an important part. Not only are the 
deities themselves called "fetishes," but the religious performances 
of acts of worship, and the offerings presented are also spoken of 
as "fetish," or sacred, because they are performed and offered in 
honor of tliose deities. In the daily household worship, in every 
domestic and public emergency, in seasons of public calamity, 
when preparing for and engaged in war, in the taking of oaths, at 
births and deaths and funerals, and, indeed in connection with every 
event in life, the "fetish " superstition holds the people in tlie 
most slavish, degradiiig, and cruel bondage. When a death occui's 
a solemn assembly is held in a palaver house to inquire into ils 
cause; and as witchcraft is the one often assigned it results in death 
to some unfortunate individual suspected of the crime. 

To be suspected of witchcraft is the Avorst thing that can over- 
take a man or woman in Africa, and at every death itis the priests' 
business to make out who has been the cause of the death. On such 
occasions a brother, sister, father, imy, in many cases even a mother, 
may be accused of the unnatural crime of liaving occasioned the 
death of their dearest. Against such a charge there exists no 
defense. Free room has been left to the priesthood for the execu- 
tion of its malicious plottings and selfish designs, as they mostly 
are. It is hard to say which men dread the most, the effects of 
witchcraft or being themselves accused of practicing it. People 
avoid with the utmost carefulness and solicitude every look, every 
word, every act, which is in the slightest measure open to misinter- 
pretation. If any one is seriously ill, care is taken not to be too 
cheerful, lest it should appear as if one was rejoicing over the 
expected decease. But, again, one does not dare to seem too solici- 
tous, lest it should be surmised that he is concealing his guilt under 
a mantle of hypocrisy. And yet, with all these precautions, one is 
never secure. If such a suspicion has once been uttered against any 
one, neitlier age, nor rank, nor even known nobility of character 
defends him from the necessity of submitting to the ordeal of poison, 
the issue of which is held infallible. 



Missionary work in africa. 58i 

The people througli belief in this doctrine, are the victims of the 
priests and priestesses — the " fetish. " men and women — who con- 
stitute a large class. The most incredible atrocities resulting from 
this belief form one of the darkest chapters in the history of this 
dark land. 

Some of the superstitious rites and ceremonies of the negro race 
partake more of the nature of open idolatry than any of those which, 
have yet been mentioned. For instance, they pay homage to certain 
lakes, rivers and mountains, which they regard as sacred, believing 
them to be the special dwelling places of the gods. They also adore 
various animals and reptiles, which they believe to be animated by 
the spirits of their departed ancestors. In some places large ser- 
pents are kept and fed, in houses set apart for the purpose, by the 
" fetish " priests. To these ugly creatures sacrifices are presented 
and divine homage is paid by the people at stated periods — a liberal 
present being always brought for the officiating priest on all such 
occasions. 

The ruling people of the Niger delta, at Bross, New Calabar, 
Bonny and Opobo, are the Ijos. Every community of them had 
formerly its "totem," or sacred animal, in whose species the ances- 
tral Spirit of the tribe was supposed to dwell. So profound was this 
belief that the English traders in the Oil River region — the Oil 
Rivers embrace the tributaries of the Niger, and are so called in 
general because the commerce in palm-oil is large upon them — were 
forbidden to kill the sacred lizard of Bonny, and the more sacred 
python of Bross. One agent of a large trading firm at Bross found 
a python in his house and inconsiderately killed it. On learning 
of it, the Bross natives destroyed the firm's factory and store, dragged 
the agent to the beach and inflicted indignities on him. The 
British consul considered the case, but such was the sentiment 
against the sacrilegious conduct of the agent, that the consul, as a 
matter of trade polity, was forced to decide that redress was impos- 
sible, in as much as he had brought the punishment on himself. 

This "totem." worship made the monster lizard at .Bonny a 
nuisance. They grew in number and impudence, till it was noth- 
ing unusual to see their six feet of slimy length stretched across 
paths and upon doorways, and to feel the lash of their serrated tails 



582 MlSSlOIfAllY WORK IN AFRICA. 

on your legs as you passed along. If one were wounded or killed, 
there was no end of trouble, for the irate natives were sure to carry 
the case to the consul on board ship, where they secured the judg- 
ment of a fine, or else taking the law into their own hands, they 
insulted, or assaulted the slayer till their anger was appeased. 

In other parts of the delta, a shark became the tribe " totem," or 
a crocodile, or water-bird, but in no part was Zoolatry — animal 
worship — carried to a greater extent than at Bonn}/- and Bross, 
where the lizard and python were favorites. In 1884, the Church 
Missionary Society took the matter in hand, and finally succeeded 
in doing what consuls and the war-ships had failed to accomplish. 
The society screwed the courage of the native converts up to the 
sticking point and finally proclaimed the destruction of the lizards in 
Bonny on one Easter Sunday morning. Men and boys, armed with 
hatchets and sticks went about killing the ugly beasts, and so com- 
plete was their work that the day ended with their extermination. 
But the sickening smell which pervaded the air for days, came near 
producing a pestilence. It was a hard blow to native superstitions, 
but the riddance soon came to be acquiesced in. A change equally 
abrupt put an end to the python worship at Bross, and so there has 
been of late years, a gradual giving up of this " totem " observance 
among the Niger tribes, thanks to missionary rather than com- 
mercial enterprise. 

Here, surely, if anywhere on the face of the earth, the Gospel, with 
its enhghtening, purifying, and ennobling influence, was needed. 
What then has been done to carry it to these degraded people, and 
what have been the results of missionary labor among them? Take 
a glance first at Sierra Leone, as it was the earliest visited by the 
missionaries. It is situated in the southern part of Senegambia. It 
has an area of 319 square miles, and a population of over 80,000, 
nearly all blacks. Formerly it was one of the chief emporiums of 
the slave trade. In 1.797 the British African Company purchased 
land from the native princes with the view of forming a settlement 
for the emancipated negroes who had served in British ships during 
the American Revolution, and who on the conclusion of peace were 
found in London in a most miserable condition. In 1808 this land 
was transferred to the British Crown, additional tracts of country 



MISSION-ARY WORK IN AFRICA. 583 

being subsequently acquired. The colony has. since served as an 
asylum for the wretched victims rescued from the holds of slave 
ships. 

The history of missionary enterprise, in this land of sickness and 
death, is a chequered one. Colonial cliaplains were appointed at 
different times, from the beginning, to minister to the government 
functionaries and otljers ; but owing to frequent deaths and absences 
from illness, the office was often vacant. The first effort of a purely 
missionary character for the benefit of West Africa was made by 
the Baptist Missionary Society in 1795. Efforts of other societies 
followed in rapid succession ; but it was not until after the com- 
mencement of the present century, when the Church and Wesleyan 
Missionary Societies undertook the work of evangelization in 
Western Africa, that the cause took a permanent and progressive 
form . 

The Church Missionary Society in 1804 sent out to Sierra Leone 
Mr. Renner, a German, and Mr. Hartwig, a Prussian, to instruct the 
people in a knowledge of Divine things. In 1806 Messrs. Nylander, 
Butscher, and Prasse— all of whom had been trained at the Berlin 
Missionary Seminary, and ordained according to the rites of the 
Lutheran church — embarked at Liverpool to strengthen the mis- 
sion. In 1816 Wm. A. B. Johnson went out as a schoolmaster to 
this colony. "He was a plain German laborer, having but a very 
limited common-school education and no marked intellectual quali- 
fications, but he was trained in the school of Christ and was a good 
man, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. It became obvious that 
he was called of God to preach the Gospel, and he was ordained in 
Africa. His period of service was brief, but marvelous in interest 
and power, and he raised up a native church of great value. Into 
the midst of these indolent, vicious, violent savages he went. He 
found them devil worshipers, and at first was very much dis- 
heartened. But though William Johnson distrusted himself, he had 
faith in Christ and his Gospel. Like Paul, he resolved to preach 
the simple Gospel, holding up the cross, show them plainly what 
the Bible says of the guilt of sin, the need of holiness, and the awful 
account of the Judgment Hay. He simply preached the Gospel and 
left results with God, confident that his Word would not return to 



584 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

him void. For nearly a year he pursued this course. And lie 
observed that over that apparently hopeless community a rapid and 
radical change was coming. Old and young began to show deep 
anxiety for their spiritual state and yearning for newness of life. If 
he went for a walk in the woods, he stumbled over little groups of 
awakened men and women and children, who had sought there a 
place to pour out their hearts to God in prayer; if he went abroad 
on moonlight evenings, he found the hills round about the settle- 
ment echoing with the praises of those who found salvation in 
Christ, and were singing hymns of deliverence. His record of the 
simple experiences of these converts has preserved their own crude, 
broken, but pathetically expressive story of the Lord's dealings 
with them, and the very words in which they told of the work of 
grace within them. No reader could but be impressed with their 
deep sense of sin, their appreciation of grace, their distrust of them- 
selves and their faith in God, their humble resolves, their tender- 
ness of conscience, their love for the unsaved about them, and their 
insight into the vital truth of redemption." 

The improvement in the appearance and habits and social condi- 
tion of the people that followed was nothing short of a transforma- 
tion. Their chapel was five times enlarged to accommodate the 
ever increasing numbers Avho attended. " Seventy years ago, if you 
had gone to what was afterward known as the Regent's Town, you 
v/ould have found people, taken at difl'erent times from the holds 
of slave-ships, in the extreme of poverty and misery, destitution and 
degradation. They were as naked and as wild as beasts. They 
represented twenty-two hostile nations or tribes, strangers to each 
other's language, and having no medium of communication, save a 
little broken English. They had no conception of a pure home, 
they were crowded together in the rudest and filthiest huts, and, in 
place of marriage, hved in a promiscuous intercourse that was worse 
than concubinage. Lazy, bestial, strangers to God, they had not 
only defaced his image, but well-nigh effaced even the image of 
humanity, and combined all the worst conditions of the most brutal, 
savage hfe, plundering and destroying one another. Here it pleased 
God to make a test of his grace in its uplifting and redeeming 
power." 



MISSlOKAKY WORK IN AFRICA. 585 

When Johnson was under the necessity of leaving for England, 
hundreds of both sexes accompanied him a distance of five miles to 
the ship and wept bitter tears at the thought of being separated 
from their best earthly friend. "Massa, suppose no water live here, 
we go with you all the way, till no feet more move." 

Similar success attended the work at other stations, so that we 
find Sir Charles M'Arthy, the governor, reporting in 1821 as fol- 
lows in regard to the villages of these recaptured negroes : " They 
had all the appearance and regularity of the neatest village in Eng- 
land, with a church, a school, and a commodious 'residence for the 
missionaries and teachers, though in 1817 they had not been more 
than thought of." In 1842 a committee of the House of Commons 
thus testified to the state of the colony. " To the invaluable exer- 
tions of the Church Missionary Society more especially — as also, to 
a considerable, as in all our African settlement, to the Wesleyan 
body — the highest praise is due. By their efforts nearly one-fifth 
of the whole population — a most unusually high proportion in any 
country — are at school ; and the effects are visible in considerable 
intellectual, moral and religious improvement." 

The bishopric of Sierra Leone was founded in 1851, and some 
idea may be formed of the trying nature of the climate from the 
fact that no fewer than three bishops died within three years of 
their consecration. In 1862 the Native Church having been organ- 
ized on an independent basis, undertook the support of its own 
pastors, churches, and schools, aided by a small grant from the 
society. 

In a work entitled " The English Church in Other Lands," it is 
stated that "in the first twenty years of the existence of the mis- 
sion, 53 missionaries, men and women, died at their post ; " but these 
losses seemed to draw out new zeal, and neither then, nor at any 
subsequent period, has there been much difficulty in filling up the 
ranks of the Sierra Leone Mission, or of the others established on 
the same coast. The first three bishops — -Vidal, Weeks and Bowen 
— died within eight years of the creation of the See, and yet there 
has been no difficulty in keeping up the succession. 

The present results are a sufficient reward for all the self-sacrific- 
ino- devotion. There is now at Sierra Leone a self-sustaining and 



586 MISSIONAKY WORK IN AFKlCA. 

self-exteiiding African church. The only white clergyman in the 
colony is Bishop Ingram, the whole of the pastoral work being in 
the hands of native clergymen. Many native missionaries, both 
clerical and lay, have been furnished for the Niger and Yoruba mis- 
sions. 

An outline of the proceedings of the Wesleyan Missionary Society 
in this part of the wide field may be compressed into a few sentences. 
Among the negroes who were conveyed from Nova Scotia to Sierra 
Leone in 1791, there were several who had become partially 
enlightened and otherwise benefited by attending services of the 
Methodist ministers in America. Some of these having made 
repeated applications to Dr. Coke for preachers of their own denom- 
ination to be sent from England, in the year 1811 the society re- 
sponded to their request by the appointment of the Kev. G. Warren 
as their first missionary to Western Africa. He was accompanied 
by three English schoolmasters. They found about a hundred of 
the Nova Scotia settlers who called tliemselves " Methodists." 
These simple minded people had built a rude chapel in which they 
were in the habit of meeting together to worship God from Sabbath 
.to Sabbath, a few of the most intelligent among them conducting 
the services and instructing the rest according to the best of their 
ability. They received the missionary from England with the live- 
liest demonstrations of gratitude and joy ; and to them, as well as 
to the poor afflicted liberated Africans, who Avere from time to time 
rescued from bondage by Biltish cruisers and brought to Sierra 
Leone, his earnest ministrations were greatly blessed. But the 
missionary career of Mr. Warren was of short duration. lie was 
smitten with fever and finished his course about eight months after 
his arrival— being the first of a large number of Wesleyan mission- 
aries who have fallen a sacrifice to the climate of Western Africa 
since the commencement of the work. Other devoted missionaries 
followed who counted not their lives dear unto them if they could 
only be made instrumental in winning souls for Christ. No sooner 
did the intelligence arrive in England that missionaries and their 
wives had fallen in the holy strife, than otliers nobly volunteered 
their services, and went forthin the spirit of self-sacrifice— in many 
instances to share the same fate. This has been going on for three 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 587 

quarters of a century ; and althougli the mortality among the agents 
of the society is appalling to contemplate, the social, moral, and 
spiritual results of the mission are grand beyond description. Con- 
gregations have been gathered, places of worship erected, native 
churches organized, and Christian schools established, not only in 
Free Town, but in most of the villages and towns in the colony. 
High schools have, moreover, been established for the training of 
native teachers and preachers, and to give a superior education to both 
males and females. The advancement of the people, most of whom 
have been rescued from slavery, in religious knowledge, general 
intelligence, moral conduct, and, indeed, in everj'thing which goes 
to constitute genuine Cliristian civilization, is literally astonishing. ^ 
In addition to the Church and Wesley an Missionary Societies, who 
took the lead in the work of religious instruction in Sierra Leone, 
other agencies have been advantageously employed. The census of 
1881 showed 39,000 evangelical Christians, about equally divided 
between the Wesleyans and the Church of England. Some reports 
give the nominal Christian population as high as 80,000. 

In the Gambia district the inhabitants on both sides of the river 
are chiefly Mandingoes and Jalloff's, most of whom are Mohamme- 
dans, with a few pagans here and there. A large number of "lib- 
erated Africans," as they are technically called, have, however, 
been brought to the Gambia from time to time, and located on St. 
Mary's and McCarthy's islands and in the neighboring districts, as 
thousands before had been taken to Sierra Leone. These are poor 
negro slaves of different nations and tribes who have been rescued 
from bondage, and landed from slave ships taken by British cruisers 
while in the act of pursuing their unlawful trade. I 

No provision had been made for the moral and religious instruc- 
tion of the colonists (British,) or the native tribes of this part of 
Africa, when the Wesleyan Missionary Society commenced its 
labors in 1821. The first missionary sent out was the Eev. John 
Morgan. He was soon afterwards joined by the Eev. John Baker 
from Sierra Leone, when these two devoted servants of God began 
to look about for the most eligible site for a mission station. Their 
object being chiefly to benefit the surrounding native tribes, they 
were anxious if possible to establish themselves on the mainland. 



588 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 



Accordingly they went to visit tlie chief of Corabo, on the sontliern 
bank of the Gambia. Having offered their presents, they were 
graciously received by his sable majesty, who signified his consent 
for the strangers to settle in any part of the country which they 
might select as most suitable for their object. They fixed upon a 
place called Mandanaree, about eight miles from St. Mary's. 




AN AFRICAN CHIEF. 

Although considerably elevated it was far from healthy ; and when 
the rainy season set in both were prostrated with fever, and were 
obliged to move to St. Mary's where they could have medical aid. 
Before the end of the year, however, Mr. Baker proceeded to the 
West Indies by direction of the Missionary Committee, his health 



MISSIONARY WORK IX AFRICA. 589 

having become so impaired by his long residence in West Africa, 
as to render a change absolutely necessary. 

Mr. Morgan had recovered fi'oni his attack of fever and was pur- 
suing his work alone, when he had the pleasure of receiving as his 
colleague the Rev. Wm. Bell, who had been sent from England by 
the committee to reinforce the mission. This devoted young mis- 
sionary appeai'ed well adapted for the enterprise upon which he 
had entered ; but he was soon called away to the " better country." 
He died of fever at St. Mary's forty-six days after his arrival. For 
a time his place was taken by the Rev. Geo. Lane, fi-om Sierra 
Leone, but his health also failing he was obliged to return, and he 
shortly afterwards finished his course. On the 14:th of April, 1824, 
Mr. Morgan was relieved by the arrival from England of the Rev. 
Robert and Mrs. Hawkins, who entered upon their work at once. 

By this time it had become evident that the proper place for the 
princiipal station was St. Mary's island, and arrangements were 
forthwith made for the erection of a mission -house and place of 
worship in Bathurst, the principal town. A number of native con- 
verts were soon after united in church fellowship as the result of 
the faithful preaching of the Gospel ; schools were organized for 
boys and girls, and the machinery of a promising mission station 
was fairly put in motion. Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins suffered much 
from sickness during their period of service, but they labored well 
and successfully, and were spared to return home in 1827, the Rev. 
Samuel and Mrs. Dawson being appointed to take their place. Mrs. 
Dawson was smitten with fever and died at Sierra Leone, on her 
way to the Gambia, and her sorrowful and bereaved husband pro- 
ceeded to his station alone. On the 18th of November, 1828, Rev. 
Richard and Mrs. Mnrsliall arrived at the Gambia from England to 
relieve Mr. Dawson ; and the school being once more favored with 
the supervision of a Christian lady, and the station with an ener- 
getic missionary, tiie work prospered in a very pleasing manner. 
Mt-. Marshall had labored with acceptance and success for nearly 
two years, when he fell a sacrifice to the climate, and finished his 
course with joy at Bathurst on the 19th of August, 18^. Two 
days after the funeral of her lamented husband, Mrs. Marshall 
embarked with her infant son for England. They arrived at Bris- 



590 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

tol on the first of October ; and worn out with mental and bodily 
suffering, the lonely widow sank into the arms of death about forty- 
eight hours after she landed on the shores of her native country. 
Gambia Station was thus left without a missionary or teacher, but 
six months later, on the 10th of March, Eev. W. Moister and wife 
arrived at St. Mary's and set to work at once to recommence the 
mission schools and pubhc services. Their labors were crowned 
with success ; and native preachers having been trained to take a 
part in the work, they felt that the time had come when some 
effort should be made to carry the Gospel to the regions beyond. 
With this object in view Mr. Moister made three successive jour- 
neys into the interior; and with much toil and exposure succeeded 
in establishing a new station at McCarthy's Island, nearly 800 miles 
up the Gambia, — a station wliicli from that day to this, a period 
of over half a century, has been a centre of light and influence to 
all around, and the spiritual birthplace of many souls. Mr. Moister 
was relieved in 1833 by the arrival from England of a noble band 
of laborers. The Rev. Wm. and Mrs. Fox took charge of St 
Mary's and Rev. Thomas and Mrs. Dove were appointed to take 
charge of the new station at McCarthy's Island. They labored 
long and successfully in this trying portion of the mission field, 
and some of them fell a sacrifice to the deadly climate. They were 
succeeded by others in subsequent years, many of whom shared the 
same fate; but whilst God buried His workmen, He carried on Plis 
work. A rich harvest has been already reaped, and the work is 
still going on. A commodious new chapel and schoolrooms have 
been built at Bathurst, and a high school established for the train- 
ing of native teachers and others ; whilst large congregations, atten- 
tive and devout, meet together for worship. 

"The Gold Coast" is the significant name given to a maritime 
country of Guinea, in Western Africa, in consequence of the quan- 
tity of gold dust brought down from the interior by the natives for 
barter with the European merchants. The Wesleyan Missionary 
Society commenced its labors on the " Gold Coast " in 1884. Their 
first station was at Cape Coast Town, and though the missionaries 
died m rapid succession, the station was never without a missionary 
for any considerable time. As the work advanced native laborers 



592 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

were raised up ; and in succeeding years stations were established, 
places of worship built, congregations gathered, and Christian 
churches and schools organized, not only in Cape Coast Town, but 
also at Elmina, Coramenda, Dix Cove, Appolonia, Anamabu, Dorn- 
onasi, Accra, Winnibab, and other places along the coast and in 
the far distant interior. In 1889 they bad 21,000 Christians. 

The Basle and North German Missionary Societies have also 
several important stations on the " Gold Coast," at Accra, Chris- 
tianburg, Akropong, and other places. During the last century the 
attention of Count Zinzendorf was drawn toward the propagation 
of the Gospel on the "Gold Coast." Three times (1736, 1768 and 
1769) missionaries were sent to Christiauburg and Ningo; bat all 
died after a short stay, without seeing any fruit of their work. 
They are buried, eleven in number, at Christiauburg and Ningo. 
Upwards of half a century elapsed ere this "white man's grave" 
was taken possession of again. At length in 1827, the Basle Ger- 
man Evangelical Mission sent out four missionaries, J. P. Henke, 
C. F. Salbach, J. G. Schmid, and G. Holzwarth. They arrived on 
the 18th of December, 1828, at Christiauburg, then and until 1851 
a possession of the Danish Crown. From Governor Lind they 
received a cordial welcome. Within nine months after their arrival 
three of them succumbed to the climate, two of them dying on the 
same day. Two years later the fourth (Henke) was removed. 
Three new laborers arrived in March, 1832, but in the course of 
four months two of them had died. Tlie third, A. Eiis, having 
been raised up from the very gates of death, labored for several 
years, and afterwards removed to Akropong, the capital of Aquapim, 
a more healthful region in the interior. The Aquapiras and their 
king proved very friendly. The reports from this new regdon had 
the effect of infusing fresh life into the society, and two mission- 
aries, along with Miss Wdter, who became the wife of Riis and 
was the first missionary lady on the "Gold Coast," were forthwith 
sent to his aid. Two years thereafter, Eiis mid his wife were left 
alone, the remorseless climate having again done its deadly work. 
The mission had now been in existence for ten years, and within 
that period no fewer than eight missionaries* had died. Eiis 
returned in broken health to Basle in 1840. The directors of the 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 593 

the society were greatly perplexed, as well they might be. The 
prevailing feeling was in favor of the abandonment of the mission, 
but a new inspector, the Rev. W. Hoffman, came into office. Fired 
with missionary zeal he proceeded in 1843 to Jamaica in order to 
enlist Christian emigrants for the work in Africa. Twenty-four 
members of the Moravian congregation there responded. They 
arrived in Christianburg in April of that year. Henceforth Akro- 
pong became as a city set on a hill. Riis returned to Africa but 
was compelled to retire altogether from the field in 1845, his health 
having again completely broken down. But reinforcements were 
sent out by the society from time to time. 

The mission now assumed a more encouraging aspect. Between 
1838 and 1848 only one missionary had died, and by the close of 
the latter year forty natives had been gathered into the church. 
Ten years later the society was able to report that no fewer than 
eighteen missionaries, with nine married and three unmarried 
ladies, besides twenty-six catechists and teachers, had been settled 
at the stations already named and at various other places. The 
church members at the close of 1858 were 385. The next decade 
showed still more gratifying results, the numbers being 31 mission- 
aries, 19 ladies, 25 native catechists, 15 nntive male, and 12 native 
female teachers, and 1581 church members. Out-stations were 
largely multiplied. 

During this last period the work was developed in other direc- 
tions. The Mission Trade Society had begun operations, its object 
being to prepare the way by means of trade based on Christian prin- 
ciples. Elders had been appointed to assist the missionaries in their 
work, and to settle minor cases of jurisdiction. Besides the day 
schools, boarding schools for boys and girls, a teachers' training 
school, and a theological school had been established. Industrial 
departments too had been added at Christianburg. These are now 
self-supporting and are proving an important means of promoting 
the moral and social well-being of the natives. In these industrial 
schools may now be seen native shoe-makers, tailors, carpenters, 
and other craftsmen, busy at work plying their respective avoca- 
tions, and preparing themselves for useful positions in life. Some 
of the missionaries have, moreover, rendered good service to litera- 
38 



594 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

ture, and to those who may succeed them in the field, by the useful 
dictionaries, grammars, and vocabularies which thejhave compiled 
of native languages, and the translations which they have made of 
Scripture into the dialects of the people among whom they labor. 
The entire Bible has been translated into two of the various lan- 
guages—viz, in the Ga or Akra, by the late Kev. J. Zimmerman; 
and in the Tshi by the Eev. Christaller — the latter language being 
spoken by at least a million of negroes on the "Gold Coast," and 
far into the interior. During the Ashanti war in 1874 Captain 
Glover bore the following emphatic testimony to the piety and 
general good conduct of the native converts who joined the British 
army from some of the stations mentioned above : " Two companies 
of Christians, one of Akropong, and the other of Christianburg, 
numbering about a hundred each, under two captains, accompanied 
by Bible-readers of the Basle Mission, attended a morning and even- 
ing service daily, a bell ringing them regularly to prayers. In action 
with the enemy at Adiurne, on Christmas day, they were in the 
advance, and behaved admirably, since which they have garrisoned 
Blappah. Their conduct has been orderly and soldier-like, and 
they have proved themselves the only reliable men of the large 
native force lately assembled on the Volta." 

In 1875 til ey sent out for the Ashanti Mission a stnff of six men 
for two new stations—Mr. and Mrs. Eamseyer among them. One 
of these stations, Begorro, is not in the Ashanti territory, but is a 
frontier town, and a connecting link between their former " Gold 
Coast " Mission and Ashanii proper. It is the healthiest of all the 
African stations of the society. The other station, Abetifi, is the 
capital of Okwao, a former province of Ashanti, which gained its 
independence after the victory of the Britisli army over the Ashantis. 
The chief of the capital, Abetifii, told the missionaries to settle 
wherever they liked. 

Early in 1881 two of the missionaries, accompanied by several 
native preachers and the necessary bearers, undertook a journey to 
Coonuissie, the capital, in order to ascertain the disposition of the 
people and the prospect of establishing a mission among them. 
During their stay they preached regularly morning and evening, 
with the king's permission, to large audiences. But the king did 



596 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

not desire a mission established there/and they deferred attempt- 
ino- to commence missionary operations in Coomassie. 

One beneficial result of the war with Ashanti has been the aboli- 
tion of domestic slavery in the "Gold Coast " colony. 

The work of the society (Basle) generally on the west coast of 
Africa has been very gratifying. In 1882. under the care of the 34 
European missionaries and upwards of a hundred other agents, there 
were some 4,000 natives, from whose minds the darkness of night 
has been dispelled, besides about 1,500 pupils under instruction who 
may be expected to do good work in the future. Many of tlie 
churches on the '"Gold Coast" have attained to a position of self- 
support. 

One single fact may be mentioned, as indicating the influence of 
the mission here. The king of Cape Coast in early life was the 
means of getting it established. He forsook the " fetish " of his 
country. In consequence he was cut off from the succession to the 
chieftainship, and publicly flogged. But after thirty yeai's' profes- 
sion of Christianity, he was elected chief or king, and, on the occa- 
sion of the anniversary in 1864, he publicly acknowledged his 
obligations to the mission. 

Lagos, a considerable island in the Bight of Benim, was in former 
times one of the most notorious slave depots on the western coast 
of Africa. It is situated at the mouth of a river, or rather, a large 
lagoon, which runs parallel with the sea for several miles, and 
affords water communication with the interior in the direction of 
Badagry, Dahomi, Abeokuta, and other parts of the Yoruba 
country. It is now a British settlement, with its resident lieutenant 
governor and staff of officers. 

The population of Lagos and the neighboring native towns, both 
in the Yoruba and Popo countries, is of a similar character to that 
which is found on other parts of the coast. Perhaps it became 
somewhat more mixed several years ago, by the emigration from 
Sierra Leone of a large number of "liberated Africans," who ven- 
tured thus to return to the countries from which they had been 
dragged as poor slaves, when they heard that the slave trade was 
abohshed. Some of these emigrants had the happiness to find 
parents, brothers, sisters or other relatives and friends still living, 



MISSIOXARY WORK IN AFRICA. 597 

who received them as alive from the dead ; whilst others sought in 
vain for any one who could recognize them. Thei'e vvei'e many 
touching and affecting meetings, and great was the surprise of the* 
natives of Lagos, Abeokuta, and other places in Yoruba and Popo 
countries, to see the change which had passed upon their friends 
and relatives by_ the residence of a few years in a free British 
colony. They all appeared decently clothed in European apparel, 
many of them had learned to read and write in the mission schools, 
and a few of them had become the happy partakers of the great 
salvation, which they had heard proclaimed in all its simplicity and 
power in the land of their exile. 

It was the extensive emigration of civilized " liberated Africans " 
from Sierra Leone to Lagos and the neighboring towns in the 
Yoruba country, that led to the vigorous efforts of the Church and 
Wesleyan Missionary Societies to evangelize the natives of this 
part of Africa. The Christian emigi-ants who had been connected 
with these organizations in Sierra Leone, on reaching their destina- 
tion reported to their respective ministers the state in which they 
fo]ind the country and earnestly requested that their friends and 
countrymen might be favored with tlie proclamation of the Gospel 
which had made them so. hap]\y. These appeals were cheerfully 
responded to by the parties concerned, and a work was commenced 
which for prosperitj'- and blessing has had few parallels in the his- 
tory of missions. 

The Church Missionary Society was happy in the selection of the 
Eev, Samuel Crowther, an educated and ordained native minister, 
as the leader of the enterprise. The history of Mr. Crowther is 
equal in interest to any romance that was ever written. Torn away 
from his native land and sold as a slave when a mere boy in 1821, 
he was rescued from a Portugese slaver by a Bi'itish cruiser and 
brought to Sierra Leone, where he Avas educated in the mission 
school, and being specially bright was sent to England. He com- 
pleted his education in Islington Training Institution and was 
ordained by the Bishop of London. He returned to Sierra Leone 
and was afterwards in 1846 appointed as a missionary to Abeokuta, 
to labor among the Sierra Leone emigrants and others. It was here, 
to his inexpressible delight, he met his mother, twenty-five years 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

after he had been snatched from her by the shive dealers ; and in 
1848 he had the farther unspeakable joy of seeing he^r admitted, 
*along with four others, into the membership of the Christian 
church. They were the first fruits of the mission. In 1864 he was 
consecrated at Canterbury Cathedral, Bishop of the Niger territory 
and superintendent of all the stations in the Yoruba and adjoining 
countries. Making the island of Lagos his headquarlers, Bishop 
Crowther, assisted by a noble band of native missionaries, has suc- 
ceeded in establishing stations, erecting churches and organizing 
Christian schools, not only in Lagos and Abeokuta, where the 
work was first commenced, but also in various towns and villages in 
Yoruba and Popo countries, and in several centres of population on 
the banks of the Niger. The principal stations on the Niger are 
Bonny and Bross at the mouth of the river, and Onitsha, Lokoja, 
New Calabar, and Egan, higher up. The last named is 350 miles 
from the mouth of the river. In 1877 a steamer named the Henry 
Venn was supplied to the mission, thus doing away with the hard 
labor and slow navigation by means of the old fashioned canoe in 
vogue on the river. An exploratory voyage made up the Binue in 
1879 revealed the existence of numerous tribes ready to receive 
teachers. 

At Bross and Bonny there has lately been a remarkable move- 
ment in the direction of Christianity, hundreds of people throwing 
away their idols and attending the church services, which are 
thronged every Sabbath. The famous Juju temple, studded with 
human skulls, is going to ruin. A village opposite Bonny has been 
named '' The Land of Israel " because there is not an idol to be found 
in it. At an important market town thirty miles in the interior, 
the chiefs and people, influenced by what they had seen at Bonny, 
and without ever having been visited by a Christian teacher, sjion- 
taneously built a church with a galvanized iron roof, and benches to 
seat 300 worshipers, got a school-boy from Bross to read the 
church services on Sundays, and then sent to ask the Bishop to give 
them a missionary. 

Rev. W. Allan writing from Bonny in 1889 says: "The worship 
of the iguana is overthrown, the priest is a regular attendant at the 
house of God, and the iguana itself converted into an article of 



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goo MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

food. The Jnju temple, which a few years ago was decorated with 
20,000 skulls of murdered victims, I found rotting away in ruin and 
decay. I passed through the grove which was formerly the 
receptacle of so many murdered infants, and I found it had become 
the reo-ular highway from the town to the church, and that the priest 
was now a baptized Christian. At 11 o'clock I went ashore and 
addressed 885 Avorshipers, including the king, the three former 
heathen priests, chiefs, and a multitude of slaves, and was thankful 
to ascertain that the work of conversion was still going on ; for, in 
addition to 648 persons already baptized, of whom 265 are com- 
municants, there are over 700 at Bonny alone who are now under 
instruction." 

Bishop Crowther has now about 10,000 Christians under his care. 
He lately opened at Bonny a new church built of iron, with sittings 
for 1,000. 

The agents of the Weslej^an Missionary Society have been as 
zealous and successful, in a somewhat more limited sphere, as those 
of the Church of England, with whom they have generally lived 
and labored in harmony and love. Among the emigrants from 
Sierra Leone there were many Wesleyans who preferred their own 
ministers, whilst the domain of heathendom, on every hand, was 
sufficiently extensive to occupy the agents of both societies. At 
an early period a commodious Wesleyan Mission-house and chapel 
were erected at Lagos, where the work has progressed in a very 
satisfactory manner from the beginning. Many have been con- 
verted from time to time and united in church fellowship, some of 
whom have gone out to make known the good news to their fellow- 
countrymen. To provide for the training of native preachers and 
teachers, as well as to give a better education to those who are in a 
position to need it, a Wesleyan high school has been erected and 
opened at Lagos, which promises to be a most useful institution. 
Common day-schools are also taught in connection with all the out- 
stations of the Lagos circuit, and the Gospel is preached to the 
people in two or three different languages. They have about 6,000 
adherents. The drink traffic is one of the great hindrances to mis- 
sionary work in this section. 

Saj's Rev. W. Allan: " In Africa we have to contend against 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 601 

tlie devil's missionary agency. The liquor traffic is increasing, and 
it is a gigantic evil — greater, even, than tlie slave trade — debasing 
the people and raining legitimate commerce. In West Africa it 
has deepened the degradation of the negro instead of civilizing 
him. Over 180,000,000 gallons of spirits had been imported last 
year in the district of Sierra Leone, and in Lagos it was far larger, 
while all the land was strewn with demijohns. The Niger Com- 
pany imported 220,000 gallons during the last two years, and 500 
cases of gin and 500,000 gallons of rum were landed by the Caliban, 
in which I sailed from Liverpool. The selling price of rum is less 
than a penny a gallon, and the gin sold at three-pence a bottle. The 
liquor so sold was of the most execrable character." 

A lurid picture of the western part of this region has lately been 
presented by the English district commissioner. He says : " The 
population, which has been recruited for many years past by a con- 
stant influx of refugees froni the surrounding tribes, falls roughly 
into three divisions. These are: the Popos, chiefly engaged in fish- 
ing, forestry, and farming, but averse to steady work of any sort, 
and much addicted to theft; the Yombas, the most enterprising 
people in the district ; and the Houssas, who are farmers and palm- 
nut gatherers. The Mohammedans among them are more enterprising 
and industrious than the fetish worshipers ; while the Christians, though 
few in number, form a fairly thriving community. But all are alike 
in ' intense and obtuse conservatism, so long as they are left to their 
own devices, and in a keen spirit of petty trading.' The sole article 
of their moral code is ' to do to your neighbor as you hope to avoid 
being done to by him.' It is useless to appeal to any higher motive, 
and it is certain that without European influence to urge them on 
commerce must decline. Fishing is carried on wholly in the la- 
goons, the people never having had the enterprise to build surf- 
boats, which would enable them to engage in sea-fishing. Some 
progress has been made in agriculture, owing to the effbrts of the 
Eoman Catholic Mission at Badagry, the administrative centre. In 
the Frah Kingdom, also, the local British officer has succeeded in 
inducing the people to plant a considerable area of fertile land with 
corn, so that villages which were almost starving two years ago on 
smoked fish are now supplying large quantities of grain to the local 



602 MISSIONARf WOUK IN AFRICA. 

markets. But this increased prosperity lias only increased the 
drunken habits of the people, wlio exchange for vile imported si)irits 
the products of their labor. Katamu, the Frah capital, is rapidly 
faUing into a ruinous state of disrepair. Every fourth or fifth house 
is a rum shop, and the so-called palm-wine sheds are filled every 
night with drunken men and women. The evils of the drink traffic 
are so apparent to the people themselves that they have petitioned 
the Governor to put an end to the sale of liquor altogether. If this 
were done the fertile flood lands of Frah might become a source of 
food supply for the whole colony. In spite of the valuable re- 
sources of the forests, nothing is done to develop them save the 
collection and treatment of the palm-nuts. Trading is the African's 
special delight, but until quite recently the markets of Lagos were 
not in a prosperous condition. Now that a British firm has estab- 
lished a branch at Badagry, and made the place a market town, it 
is estimated that 5,000 persons with every variety of native produce 
assemble there every market day, and in eight months the monthly 
export has increased from £30 to £1,878. Cocoanut planting, road 
making, corn-growing, and the cessation of the drink traffic appear 
to be the official methods for civilizino- the West African ne2,ro." 

An extensive district on the western coast of Africa, between 
Sierra Leone and Cape Coast Oastle received the name of Liberia, 
from the circumstance of its being colonized by liberated slaves 
and free persons of color from America. On the 22d of Novem- 
ber, 1888, the secretary of the Manchester Geographical Society 
read an interesting paper contributed by the Hon. G. B. Gudgeon, 
consul-general for Liberia in London. The followino- is an extract : 
"It was stated that the famous negro republic of Liberia was 
founded by the American Colonization Society in 1822. The work 
of civihzing and Christianizing the inhabitants of that almost 
unknown country was entirely carried on for more than twenty 
years by this society. The missions established along the coast 
and at various points inland had developed into Liberia's prosper- 
ous towns and settlements. It became an independent state in 
1847.^ Neariy 2,000,000 souls were subject to the rule of the 
Liberian Republic, consisting of about 40,000 freed slaves and their 
descendants, the remainder belonging to numerous aboriginal tribes. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 603 

While the state possessed a seaboard of 500 miles and an interior 
extending over 200 miles, she had acquired no territory exce|)t by 
treaty, purchase, exchange, or barter. Bishop Taylor had 
described the country as healthy and its climate salubrious and 
enjoyable, without a plague of flies and with few mosquitoes. 
Many travelers had confirmed the bishop's testimony. Tlie Eepub- 
lic of Liberia stood before the world as the realization of the dreams 
of the founders of the American Colonization Society, and in many 
respects more than the realization. Far beyond the recognized 
limits of the country, and hundreds of miles away from the coast, 
the effects of American civilization were to be witnessed. Men of 
color entirely governed the republic, and if anj^ proof were wanting 
of the capacity of freedmen to govern, Liberia was an interesting 
illustration. The ability, learning, and skill of many of Liberia's 
citizens were found in their code of laws, which for humanity, 
justice, and morality no other country could excel. The English 
tongue is spoken throughout the republic except among the native 
tribes not yet civilized ; but among these too it is making good 
progress." 

Eev. S. L. Johnson, who recently visited Liberia, says: "The 
scenery along the coast of Liberia, from Cape Mount to the Gulf of 
Guinea, a distance of about 600 miles, is exceedingly grand. A 
few miles from the coast the country rises to hills, with gigantic 
trees, presenting a panorama that can only be described by a skilful 
artist. 

" Monrovia is the capital of the republic. It rests on a beauti- 
ful hill overlooking the sea, surrounded by trees. There are many 
fine buildings in the city, which are creditable to the Monrovian 
people. The president's house is built of brick, as are also many of 
the buildings ; others are built of stone. The wharves face the sea, 
where there are colored firms doing business with England, Ger- 
many, and America, 

" Mr, Sherman does a large business with England and America. 
4-fter my return to England I wrote to Mr. Sherman for informa- 
tion regarding the articles of trade. This is the answer : — ' The 
articles of trade are palm-oil, palm kernels, coffee, ivory, camwood, 
ginger, and rubber. Many of our merchants do a business of $100,000 



604 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

to $150,000 a year. A vessel left here for New York on the 7th 
inst., with a cargo of $50,000 worth, collected within two montlis. 
In this cargo were 118,000 pounds of coffee.' 

" The soil of Liberia is extremely fertile, and produces all kinds of 
tropical fruits, sugar-cane, indigo, Indian corn, rice, cotton, cocoa, pea- 
nuts, and coffee, the hotter the finest in the world. Vegetables are 
cultivated with great success. There are to be Ibund the finest dye- 
woods, ebony, gum plant, and the gigantic palin -trees, which pro- 
duce the palm-oil. On my way to England from Africa 1,500 
casks were shipt on the same steamer to Liver] )Ool, a good si i are 
of it being from the coast of Liberia. Goats, swine, sheep, cattle, 
and fowls, all thrive in Liberia. 

" This republic has a glorious work to accomplish in the future. 
It will undoubtedly be in time, the most prosperous state on the 
west coast of Africa. With the civil, social, and religious advan- 
tages she enjoys, she must succeed. The annexation of the king- 
dom of Medina, with five hundred thousand inhabitants, and her 
wide and fertile domain, extending over two hundred miles into the 
interior, will no doubt inspire renewed energy in giving fuller 
opportunities for the advancement of the Gospel, as well as an open 
door for civilization and commerce. 

" Much zeal and perseverance have been displayed throughout 
the republic. Fine churches, school buildings, and a college are to 
be seen in Monrovia. 

" At Nifoa, on the coast of Liberia, I counted forty-nine canoes, 
with two or three men in each, going out fishing. At twenty-five 
minutes to ten we stopt at Grand Cess, Liberia. Here fifteen 
canoes came out, with from three to twenty m.en in each. These 
belong to the Kru tiibe, the aborigines of a part of Liberia. They 
are a fine-looking people, and very industrious. But for this class 
of people I do not know what the European traders of the African 
steamship companies would do. All the steamers reaching Sierra 
Leone and the coast of Liberia take on board a gang of 'Kru- 
men ' to do the work of the ship. One hundred and thirty men were* 
taken on board our steamer to go down the coast to work. Many 
of them speak broken English well." 

As might be expected, this territory, extending upwards of 



606 



MISSIONAEY WOKK IN AFRICA. 



300 miles along tlie coast to Cape Palmas, Las been occupied by 
the American churches— viz. the Baptist, Methodist Episcopal, 
Protestant Episcopal, and Presbyterian Church (north). Much zeal 
and perseverance have been displayed in connection with all these 
agencies, and the result is seen in the parsonages, and places of wor- 
ship, colleges and school buildings which have been erected in most 
of the towns and villages in the settlements, and in the improved 
morals of the people. 

For some years past the Missionary Society of the Methodist 

Episcopal Church has 
been gradually reduc- 
ing the appropriations 
for the carrying on of 
the missions from $37,- 
000 to $2,500— a pro- 
cedure that has been 
regarded by the confer- 
ence in Liberia as in- 
consistent with the gen- 
eral spirit of the church 
and the growing inter- 
est felt of late years in 
the evangelization of 
Africa, and which for a 
time threatened to re- 
sult in a severance of 
the ecclesiastical rela- 
tions subsisting be- 
tween tlie conference 
and the society. The action of the latter has been dictated solely 
by an earnest desire to secure in the native churches " the develop- 
ment of a spirit of self-reliance and independence — elements indi- 
spensable to a self-perpetuating church in any land." The General 
Conference of 1888 changed the name and boundaries of the " Liber- 
ian Conference " to the " African Annual Conference " embracing 
the entire continent of Africa. In the other missions in Liberia 
there seems also a disposition to rely on foreign aid. 




METHOmST PAESONAGE OF AFRICA. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 607 

Ferdando Po is one of the most important islands on the 
western coast of Africa, and enjoys many advantages from its 
peculiar position. It is situated in the Gulf of Guinea, about seventy- 
miles from the coast of Benim. It is thirty miles long and twenty 
broad ; and in its general aspect it is rugged and mountainous in the 
extreme, though there are some fertile valleys between the moun- 
tains, and several promising tracts of land along the shore. 

Among the settlers and aborigines of Fernando Po some really 
useful missionary work has been done at different times, which 
deserves a passing notice. The first in the field were the agents of 
tlie Baptist Missionary Society. They labored for several ^^ears 
' among the settlers of all classes with very good results, whilst the 
English had possession of the island ; but when it was given over to 
the Spaniards, Rom9,n Catholicism was proclaimed to be the estab- 
lished religion of the settlement, and the harshness and persecution 
with which the Baptist missionaries were treated by the government 
authorities ended in their removal to the continent. In 1870 — 
some improvement having taken place in the Spanish government 
— the Primitive Methodists were induced to commence a mission 
in Fernando Po, the Eev. Messrs. Burnett and Roe being the first 
missionaries sent out. They and their successors labored for several 
years very successfully. In 1879, in consequence of some misunder- 
standing, the missionaries were again banished from the island. An 
appeal was at once made to the home authorities, and in the course 
of a few months they were allowed to return. 

This question of conflict between Protestant and Catholic mission 
work in Africa has, at certain times and in certain places, been seri- 
ous, and is greatly to be regretted, for it destroys the efficacy of both 
Churches, and proves a stumbling block to the natives. Pinto speaks 
of it with amazement, in his trip across the continent. He found 
places where the natives had been utterly demoralized by the spirit 
of contention indulged by the two Churches, and where their final 
answer to his advice to live at peace and deal justly with one another 
was, that white people might talk that way, but their actions proved 
that they did not mean what they said. 

In former times — notably in the Spanish, French and Portuguese 
provinces of Africa — the Catholic mission was a part of the politi- 



608 MISSIONAKY WORK IN AFRICA. 

cal establishment, and it was expected to use its influence to extend 
and perpetuate the power wliicli protected it. This was equivalent 
to warning off' all competitors as intruders. Happily this condition 
is underg-oing rapid modification. 

Similarly, the Protestant mission of other countries was treated 
as part of the commercial establishment, under the protection of the 
consul, and of the trading company, to whom, the territory was 
allotted. Its business was therefore, in part, to cultivate the trading 
spirit and make its success contribute to the wealth of the pai'ent 
country. This notion, too, is undergoing modification. 

All of which is directly in the line of that Christian enterprise s^ 
much needed for the conversion of the African heathen. 

On the mainland opposite Fenando Po, and on into the interior, 
good work has been done. We'will speak first of the Old Calabar 
Mission. 

Old Calabar, on an affluent of the Cross river, is a recognized 
centre of the trade of the Oil river sections. It has a population of 
15,000 natives and 150 white. An insight into the characteristics 
of the natives beyond Old Calabar can best be gotten from the 
journey of Mr. Johnson up the Cross river in 1888. His object in 
making an ascent of the river was to treat with the natives and at 
the same time settle an old quarrel between the Union people and 
the tribes about Calabar. Stopping, merely to observe that the 
Kruboys, of whom Mr. Johnson speaks, are the Krumen — Kroo- 
men — of the Liberian coast, among whom Bishop Taylor has, in his 
four years of African labors, established more than twenty missions, 
we let the adventurer tell his own story. He says: "Having 
decided to ascend the Cross river and having no steam launch at 
my disposal, I was obliged to make the journey in native canoes, 
of which I hired three, and fitted the largest with a small house in 
tlie centre for my lodging. I took with me about thirty Kruboys. 
These invaluable native workers come from the Liberian coast. 
Without their aid European enterprise on the west coast of Africa 
would be at a standstill ; for, invariably, the negroes who are 
indigenous will not undertake any persistent work. The Kruboy 
is a strong, good tempered, faithful creature ; able to row, paddle, 
carry, dig, wash clothes, or turn his hand to anything — in fact, he 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 609 

is a great deal sharper and more industrious than the average 
English navvy. My first object in going up the Cross river was to 
settle an outstanding quarrel between the people of a district called 
Umon and the natives of Old Calabar. Umon is at a distance of 
about a hundred miles from the sea. The people speak a language 
quite distinct from the Calabar language. They were, till lately, 
terribly priest-ridden. Their life was a burden to them, with its 
load of cruel superstitious practices. The last kw years, however, 
since they have come into contact with the missionaries, the state 
of affairs has greatly improved. As I appeared in the light of a 
mediator, I was most warmly welcomed. An imposing fleet of 
eighty large Calabar canoes reached Umon soon after I arrived, and 
formed a really pretty sight, as they were all painted in brilliant, 
but tasteful combinations of color, their little houses hung with 
bright carpets or leopard skins, each canoe being decorated with 
gaudy banners. The crews were most fantastically dressed in gor- 
geous clothes. The beating of drums, blowing of horns, and the 
firing of guns .made a clamor most disturbing to my comfort, which 
I promptly stopped. I need hardly say that I had the Calabar 
people all under my control, for there was not only a personal 
attachment between us, but they knew that I was working in their 
interest, and the Umon people were much impressed by the way in 
which ray shabby little despatch canoe, with two of my Kruboys in 
it, could marshal the imposing Calabar fleet. 

"As both sides were longing to have their quarrel at an end, and 
were fully prepared to accept my decision, the conference was a 
brief one. I decided that it was six of one and half a dozen of the 
other. I made the Calabar people surrender the Umon captives, 
and the Umon surrender their Calabar prisoners. Peace was re- 
established, trade was resumed, and I was free to continue my 
journey. 

"We next visited the important Akuna-Kuna cmmtry, very 
populous, and inhabited by friendly, industrious people, whose 
chiefs very promptly and willingly concluded a treaty with the 
British Government, and loaded me with such an abundance of pro- 
visions — bullocks, goats, sheep, fowls, ducks, yams, and Indian corn 
89 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 611 

— tLat our progress was seriously impeded, our canoes nearly cap- 
sized, and my Krumen suffered severely from indigestion, 

"Some distance up the river we had -rather a ticklish task to 
perform. Another quarrel, and that a bitter one, had to be 
settled between the people of Akuna-Kuna and the inhabitants of 
Iko-Morut. Here I was awkwardly situated. Had I been enabled 
to travel in a steam-launch, I could have gone safely up the river, 
or in any direction where there was sufficient water ; but travel ing- 
simply in native canoes, the inhabitants of these wild countries in 
the interior, who look on every stranger as an enemy, had no idea 
that a white man was visiting them, and often proceeded to attack 
us before I could make myself seen, 

" As soon as we came in sight of the stockaded villages of Iko- 
Morut, many excited chocolate-colored natives could be seen hurry- 
ing along the banks of the stream and posting themselves in ambush 
behind the trees. Then first one gun, then two, three, four guns 
went off; then there was a regular hail of slugs and stones, whip- 
ping up the surface of the water, and, in one or two cases, whizzing 
over our canoes. In the face of this warm reception, it would have 
been impossible to proceed, for, at any moment, a shot might strike 
our canoes and send them to the bottom. As to returning the fire 
of these poor, stupid savages, nothing was further from my thoughts. 
It was always open to me to retreat, and, unless I could proceed 
peacefully and with a friendly reputation preceding me, it was futile 
to continue my ascent of the Cross river. So I had the canoes 
steered to an unoccupied sand-bank in the center of the stream, and, 
as soon as the natives saw that we stopt, they ceased firing. Then 
1 got into my small despatch canoe, with two interpreters, hoisted 
my white umbrella, and assuming my smile, quietly landed on the 
crowded beach, to the silent amazement of the natives, who were 
armed to the teeth. I was conducted to the chief, who, for a long 
time, could not be prevailed on to see me, on account of my pre- 
sumed powers to bewitch him; but a little friendly conversation 
through the red screen of his apartment, and the hint that I had 
brought a pretty present, reassured him, and we soon made excellent 
friends. 

" To make a long story short ; the result of my stay at Iko-Morut 



512 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

was equally satisfactory to that of Union. I made peace between 
Akuna-Kuna and Iko-Morut, and the chiefs of the latter place con- 
cluded a treaty with me. 

"Then on, beyond Iko-Morut, day after day, we paddled up the 
beautiful stream, sometimes received by the natives in a gush of 
friendliness, sometimes sullenly avoided, sometimes boisterously 
attacked. At length, in the heart of the cannibal country, on the 
outskirts of Atam, where the Cross river attains its furthest reach 
to the north, our journey came forcibly to an end. I had several 
times been captured and released, several times fired at and then 
hugged by those who had attacked me, but the strain was becom- 
ing too great for the nerves of my Kruboys. 

" As we approached one village, a shot, better directed than usual, 
went through the roof of my little ark, and though no doubt our 
ultimate reception at the village would have been the same as at 
the preceding ones — .first sullen hostility, then timid inquiry, and 
lastly a cordial hand-shaking and hugging, and the giving of pres- 
ents — still, before this happy consummation should come about, 
some of us mighthavebeen accidentally killed, or our canoes — our 
only means of regaining civilization — sunk or disabled ; con- 
sequently I decided to turn back. Then ensued an awful afternoon, 
when for miles and miles we had to run the gauntlet past populous 
villages of cannibals, whom we had much difficulty in avoiding on 
our ascent of the river; and who, taking our retreat for a flight, 
seemed bent on capturing us or plundering our canoes and eating 
the wretched Kruboys, who turned blue with fright at the prospect 
of being eaten, as they desperately paddled down the river past 
shrieking natives, who waded out into the shallows, or pursued us 
in canoes. Every now and again we would stick on a sand bank, 
and the shouts of the natives would come nearer and nearer ; then 
we would get off again, and paddle for our lives ; then stick again, 
and so on, till at last we were out of this savage district. I hesitate 
to say hostile, for, wherever I landed, or was captured, I was always 
well treated as soon as they found out what I was like and what 
my objects were in visiting their country. At length we arrived in 
the delightful district of Apiapum, where we put up for a week at 
the clean and comfortable town of Ofurekpe, whose chief and people 



MISSION" ARY WORK IK AFRICA. 613 

were some of the nicest, kindliest, most friendly folk I have ever 
seen in Africa, though they were in their practical way cannibals, 
like their neighbors — that is to say, they were given to eating the 
flesh of all whom they might catch in war. I did not here observe 
that other kind of cannibalism which I have occasionally met on 
the Upper Cross river, which is of a sentimental character, namely, 
where the old people of that tribe, when they become toothless and 
useless, are knocked on the head, smoke-dried, pounded into paste, 
and re-absorbed into the bosom of the family." 

The Old Calabar Mission originated with the Jamaica Presby- 
tery of what is now the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. 
The first band of missionaries, led by Mr. Hope Waddell, a mem- 
ber of the Jamaica Presbytery, reached their field of labor on the 
Old Calabar river on April 10th, 1846. They were cordially wel- 
comed by King Eyamba and the chiefs of Duke Town, as also by 
King Eyo of Creek Town and his chiefs. Suitable sites for mission 
stations were readily granted. Mr. Waddell held a service with 
Eyamba and his chiefs the first Sunday after his arrival, and pre- 
sented the former with a Bible. 

Mission houses and schools vv'ere in due time erected at both 
stations, a printing press being also usefully employed in scattering 
the seeds of Divine truth. At Creek Town the first sermon was 
preached in the court yard of King Eyo's palace, the king himself 
acting as interpreter. 

The mission was reinforced in July, 1847, by the arrival of addi- 
tional missionaries from Jamaica. 

In May previous King Eyamba died. It was the occasion of one 
of those scenes of cruelty, too common in heathen lands. 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the missionaries, no fewer than a 
hundred victims were sacrificed, among whom were thirty of the 
king's wives. Here is the account given of the burial : " The 
people dug a large hole in one of King Eyaniba's j^ards, and having 
decked him in his gayest apparel, with the crown on his head, 
placed him between two sofas, and laid him in the grave. They 
killed his personal attendants, umbrella carrier, snuff box bearer, 
etc., (these the king was supposed to need in the world of spirits), 
by cutting off their heads, and with their insignia of of&ce threw 



6 14 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

them in above the body ; and after depositing a quantity of chop 
and of coppers, they cover all carefully up, that no trace of a grave 
could be seen. Over this spot a quantity of food is daily placed." 

In February, 1850, an Bgbo law was passed abolishing the inhu- 
man practice of sacrificing human beings when a king or chief died. 
It is spoken of as " A good day for Calabar " — " One memorable in 
the annals of the land." About the same time the marriage cere- 
mony was introduced — King Byo having witnessed the first regular 
marriage. 

On the suggestion of Mr. Waddell, their domestic idol, whicli 
consisted of a stick surmounted by a human skull and adorned with 
feathers, was expelled from everj'- house. 

The death of King Eyo in December, 1858, put the Egbo law to 
the test. Much excitement prevailed. Fears were entertained that 
the old superstition would triumph. Happily no such dreaded 
result followed. Other heathen practices were one by one aban- 
doned through the influence of the mission. 

The mission extended its sphere of operations from time to 
time — Ikunetu, situated on the Great Cross river, about twenty 
miles above Creek Town, being occupied in 1856, and Ikorofiong, 
also on the Cross river, about twenty miles above Ikunetu, in 1858. 
The Presbytery of Old Calabar was established September 1st, 
1858, under the designation of the Presbytery of Biafra. 

In 1878 Mr. Thomas Campbell, the European evangelist at Old 
Town, accompanied by a number of natives, explored in two direc- 
tions — first in Oban, up the Qua river, and then beyond Nyango, on 
the Calabar river. Everywhere he was well received by the chiefs 
and people. On September 6th, 1880, there was an agreement 
entered into between D-. Hopkins, Esq., British consul, and the kings 
and chiefs of Calabar, in accordance with which a number of super- 
stitious and cruel customs are held as criminal and punishable by 
law. These include the murder of twin children, human sacrifices, 
the killing of people accused of witchcraft, the giving of the esere or 
poison bean, the stripping of helpless women in the public streets, 
etc., etc. 

In the Missionary Record^ June, 1881, appears the following in- 
telligence : " The mission which seemed so long fruitless, is now 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 615 

one of tile most fruitful in the whole earth. The increasing num- 
ber and activity of the communicants, the increasing number of 
students in ti^aining as teachers and evangelists, and the manifesta- 
tions of a Christian liberality not yet reached at home, tell of the 
changes which the Gospel has wrought. We ploughed in hope : 
we sowed in tears : and now already we reap in joy. The most 
recent tidings are the most heart-stirring. A new tribe, which had 
long resisted our approach, has been visited. They had never seen 
among them a white man till they looked on the face of the devoted 
Samuel Edgerlv. They invite teachers to settle among them. 
They offer us suitable sites. The country is far beyond the 
swamps; it is high and healthy. This favorable entrance was 
greatly aided by the wise and good King Eyo, who sent a prince to 
accompanj'- Mr. Edgerly beyond Qmon to Akuna Kuna. When the 
expedition returned and the king heard the result, he gave utter- 
ance to one of the noblest of sentiments. 'God,' said he, when 
Mr. Edgerley had told his tale, ' has unlatched the door^ and wishes 
us to push it openj " 

Such results as have been achieved at the Old Calabar Mission 
are worth all the money and toil and sacrifice of health and even of 
life which they have cost. 

The mission to the Cameroons was established in 1845 by tlie 
Baptist Missionary Society. When the missionaries of that society 
were expelled from the neighboring island of Fernando Po, where 
they had been laboring since 1841, they settled among the Isubus 
at Binibia, wliere a mission had previously been projected. T\\q 
mission was afterwards extended to King Bell's Town in an easterly 
direction, tlie people inhabiting that region being the Dualas. The 
entire New Testament has been translated into the languages of 
both tribes. 

The Gaboon Mission was called into existence by the American 
Board in 1842. Baraka was the first station occupied. It was 
transferred in 1870 to the Mission Board of the American Presby- 
terian Church (north.) The Mpongwes on the coast, and the 
Shekanis, Bakalais, and Pangwes in the interior, are the tribes 
embraced in the field of operation. Not much progress has been 
made owing to the opposition of the Roman Catholics. In all the 



QIQ MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

French possessions on the west coast of Africa the Eoman Catho- 
lics predominate and very little has been accomplished. Eecently 
tlie Pans Evangelical Missionary Society has been doing a good 
work at Senegal and other settlements. 

We come now to Angola. Angola was discovered by European 
mariners long before Christopher Columbus had given to the world 
another continent, yet many years passed before the value of the 
discovery was recognized and the country taken possession of and 
occupied by the Portuguese, at that period when Portugal was made 
remarkable by the commercial enterprise and maritime prowess 
of its people, more than three hundred years ago. 

For several years before the occupation of Angola, the king of 
Congo had been doing a large and lucrative trade with the Portu- 
guese in slaves. Ti)e sources from which were drawn victims to 
keep alive this nefarious barter were never failing. The supersti- 
tions of the people, their customs and habits, a season of drouth, 
a failure of crops, in fact anything, even the least trivial happen- 
ings, were all factors giving Congo's king excuse for the selling of 
his subjects to securing wealth ; wealth represented by many wives, 
granaries filled to bursting with manioc, and wooded hills and 
fertile valleys stocked to overrunning with flocks of sheep and 
droves of lowing kine ; wealth which enabled Congo to dominate 
and overawe all contemporary tribes, and which naturally incited 
the jealousy of other kings and chiefs who ruled over the natives 
of other districts in this country of Congoland. 

Among the savage rulers who were envious of the power of their 
rival, was Nmbea, king of Angola, autocrat of a large and densely 
populated conntry. Holding at his disposal millions of helpless 
and superstitious subjects, Nmbea soon recognized that by copy- 
ing the practices of his powerful neighbor he, with but little diffi- 
culty, would also become chief and powerful. So, moved by this 
desire, he opened a correspondence with the Portuguese. lie sent 
one of the rich men of his tribe, with presents of slaves, ivory and 
strangely wrought curios, as ambassadors to the Portuguese court 
at Lisbon, with instructions to endeavor to have the Portuguese 
establish trading relations between the two kingdoms. 

At this time the attention of the Portuguese queen and the 



MISSIONARY WOEK IN AFRICA. 617 

people generally was attracted towards Brazil, Enterprising 
colonists, venturesome exploi'ers and wealth seekers of all classes 
saw in this South American district a new Cathay. Thousands from 
among the patrician, as well as other thousands from more humble 
circles, rushed into that new land, necessarily causing large sums of 
money to follow in their wake. The enthusiasm with which this 
American opportunity was cultivated and the resultant drain from 
the royal treasury and from the coffers of the people caused Queen 
Catherine to receive with indifference all stories of African wealth. 
Thus obstacles were formed which prevented Nmbea from carrying 
out his plans until several years had passed, when the growing 
demands for slaves, needed to supply labor in Brazilian mines and 
on East Indian coffee farms, had become a matter of great impor- 
tance. Then the request of Angola's king was considered, and a 
party of Portuguese were landed at a place in his kingdom which 
they called St. Paul de Loanda. 

In the selection of this place these adventurers were most fortu- 
nate, for it was not long before trade, in ever-increasing volume, 
flowed towards the sea coast at this point. The growth of the city 
was rapid and, despite wars with native tribes and trouble with 
marauding Dutch, it grew wealthy and powerful. Large and 
beautiful cathedrals were built, imposing palaces were erected as 
were many important public buildings, and dotted here and there 
about the suburbs, were fruitful farms and valuable plantations. So 
with the moving years the city waxed strong and mighty, thriving 
on its traffic in human flesh. But a time came when this trade was 
shaken to its base and the prosperity of its citizens brought to a 
temporary end. 

The inhabitants of the civilized world began to look with dis- 
favor upon the slave traffic, and were induced to attempt its sup- 
pression. This, for Loanda, was the writing on the wall, for it 
meant the placing of an embargo upon the trade which was the 
only source from which the city derived revenue for its support. 
Philanthropy succeeded, and as a consequence Loanda's glory faded. 
The palaces passed away, the stately cathedrails crumbled into ruins 
and the large and costly slave barracoons became useless except as 
fuel for the poor. 



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MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 619 

Then for years death -like quiet reigned in the city, and all signs 
of coniraerce ceased. But this stagnation was not to last forever. 
England and other commercial nations of Europe, in their efforts to 
find markets for the sale of the products of their mills and work- 
shops, had established depots for trade at almost every important 
place in the world. The eyes of European merchants were turned 
towards the prolific field of southwest Africa. 

Stories which told how great wealth was to be gained in African 
trade began to be chronicled in the exchanges of all the great com- 
mercial centres, and a wave of commercial endeavor wa-s put in 
motion, which carried with it many richly freighted barks to again 
fill the harbor of the African city of St. Paul de Loanda. Since 
then Loanda has improved beyond all expectation, and now the ves- 
sels of four lines of steamers as well as many sailing craft are con- 
stantly in the harbor loading and discharging their cargoes. Many 
large public buildings have been built. Acres of flat and swampy 
shore have been reclaimed and are now utilized for docks and wharfs. 
Ruins of churches and monasteries have been cleared away and walks 
and squares have been laid out and planted. There are many shops 
supplied with all kinds of European goods. Pipes have been laid, 
through which flows into the city sweet water from the river 
Bengo, nine miles away, and when the railway, now in course of 
construction, is in operation to bring the products of the farms, 
plantations and rich forests of the interior to the city, Loanda will 
have become a fair specimen of a thriving tropical town. 

The city is situated on the shore of a large and beautiful bay and 
is divided into a lower and an upper town. The " Cidade Baixa," 
or lower town, which is built on the flat shore which fringes the 
water of the bay, nestles at the base of a hill and straggles up its 
rising sides until it joins the " Cidade Alto." The upper town 
stretches along the brow of the elevation and sweeps outward 
towards the ocean until it ends at a bold and rocky precipice where 
Fort St. Miguels, a frowning sentinel, watches over the safety of the 
port. 

The harbor is a bay where a thousand ships might at one time 
ride at anchor and find secure protection from the severest storm. 
A long, low and narrow neck of land, called Isle of Palms, leaves 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 621 

the mainland about twelve miles to tlie south and runs north until 
it reaches a point opposite the city, where it flattens out its surface 
of sunlit sands to give protection to the harbor of which it forms the 
southern boundary. 

This spit of land is partly covered with groves of cocoa palms, 
among which the residents of the city have erected many small 
houses where they visit daily to enjoy surf bathing. On other 
parts of this sandy breakwater are numerous villages occupied by 
native fishernien, who make an easy living. 

Loanda contains a population of nearly 20,000 people, about one- 
third of whom are white. The houses, as a rule, are built of stone 
and roofed with tile, and are large and commodious. The houses 
all have spacious yards attached, in which are situated the stores, 
kitchens, wells and habitations of the slaves and servants. Arranged 
in this manner, and with wide and spacious streets, the city is very 
open and comparatively healthy. It covers a large expanse of 
ground. The principal business street contains a number of fine 
structures. On it are situated the buildings of the Banco da Ultra 
Marenho, the barracks of the military police, the custom-house and 
the of&ces of the foreign consuls. There are also three hotels, 
many stores and warerooms, several billiard rooms and caf^s. In 
the middle of the street rows of banyan trees have been planted, 
making a shady walk, where the natives gather to buy and 
sell. 

These open-air sales, called in Bunda talk " Quitanda " market, 
are well patronized. Four uprights, a few " Loandas " mats for a 
shed, a stone-bowled pipe and a wooden pillow, are all tl^e furnish- 
ings needed to make comfortable the colored women merchants. 
On the ground and all around the booths are laid out pieces of cot- 
ton, cheap calico, brilliantly colored handkerchiefs, native-made 
baskets containing balls and reels of cotton, beads, needles, pins, 
etc., cheap crockery and cutlery, empty bottles and balls of dif- 
ferent colored clay. Suspended from the uprights and resting 
against the trees are stacks of native tobacco, plaited into rolls or 
wound about sticks and sold by inches. The venders at these open 
sales are always women, and as a rule are clean and comely. They 
are shrewd sellers and close buyers, and in a few years become, from 



622 MISSIONARY- WORK IN AFRICA. 

a native's point of view, quite wealthy. Wlien conducting tlie 
business of the day, they squat or lie down upon the sand and 
indulge in quip and joke, and gossip with one another and their 
customers. 

Covering a whole square in the center of the lower town is the 
general market. It is a large, square, uncovered enclosure made of 
terra cotta and brick, built in excellent taste. All the public build- 
ings of Loanda are under the direct control of the military police 
and are well conducted. 

At break of day one hears the loud sound of many horns, 
trumpets and beating drums. Down through the flower scented 
streets, in soldierly order moving, with burnished guns and glisten- 
ing bayonets, 100 blacks, all dressed in spotless white, come march- 
ing until they reach the market gates. Here good Father Anselmo, 
of the Ursulines, pours out a benediction upon the market and the 
awaiting people. When the gates are opened the police take their 
stations and the market is ready to receive the buyers and sellers of 
the day. Through the open portals into the market flows a stream 
of laughing, singing men and women. One carries upon her head 
a large basket, from whose open top protrudes the heads of cack- 
ling geese and scolding hens. Another has a pot of neichinaas 
(water oil). Some bring meat and others vegetables. Millions of fleas 
and "jiggers" are always present, and in and out among the wares 
run countless naked and dirty children. The buyers and sellers 
shout aloud in boisterous tone. 

Besides this market there is another given up entirely to the sale 
offish. In the haze of early morning, far out upon the ocean, hun- 
dreds of black spots are seen bobbing up and down upon the water. 
They are the canoes of the fishermen who are hastening towards 
the land with the fruit of their night's labor. In a little time they 
reach the shore and their scaly cargoes are tumbled out upon the 
sands. The women and children at once proceed to clean the fish. 
In one spot they arrange the fish for drying, while others salt and 
pack them in barrels for shipment. Others, again, fry, boil and 
roast the fish and all are eating raw or half-cooked fish, interspers- 
ing everything with shouting, singing, dancing and grunts of satis- 
faction. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 623 

During the period when the city's prosperity was interrupted, its 
streets were left uncared for and their beautiful pavements became 
covered with a bed of loose red sand, which was washed by the 
rain down from the surrounding hills. This drifting still continues, 
rendering walkings© very difficult that it is indulged in only by the 
convicts and natives. The better classes have resource to the 
" maxilla." The " maxilla " is a fiat frame of canework with one 
or two arms at the side and a low back provided with a cushion. 
This frame is hung by cords to a hook on a palm pole, about eigh- 
■ teen feet long, and is carried upon the shoulders of two blacks, who 
travel with it easily at the rate of three or four miles an hour. It is 
covered with an awning of oiled cloth and has silk curtains hung all 
around it. 

Loanda- is a convict settlement, but, contrary to what might be 
expected, its people are remarkably law-abiding. This may arise 
from the fact that discovered law-breakers are punished most 
severely, often dying under the lash. The convicts, as a rule, are 
store-keepers and farmers. They are prosperous, and soon become 
contented with their lot and rarely return to Europe. Ignorant and 
unrefined, they assimilate readily with the native classes, and take 
part in all their pleasures. 

The "batuco," country dance, is the popular form of amusement. 
A " batuco " is danced in the following fashion : A large ring is 
formed of men and women. On the outside several fires are kept 
burning, near which are assembled the musicians with horns, drums 
and the twanging " maremba." Others clap their hands and sing 
a kind of chorus. Two dancers, a man and a woman, jump with 
a yell into the ring, shuffle their feet with great rapidity, passing 
backwards and forwards. Then facing one another, suddenly 
advance and bring their breasts together with a whack. These 
dances are not in great favor with the better classof free blacks, but 
this does not prevent them from occurring every night. Although 
the abolition of slavery is supposed to have taken place in 1878, 
almost all servants are slaves. The}^ are well treated, however, as 
public opinion condemns harshness and quite a rivalry exists in 
having household slaves well dressed and happy looking. 

The city has no places of public amusement except a theatre, but 



524 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

this for some time has not been used on account of a social war 
between the married women and those who do not consider the 
marriage ceremony essential to their welfare. There is a fair mili- 
tary band, however, wliicli plays twice a week in the park in the 
upper town, and there is hardly a night that there is not something 
going on at some of the private homes. A dance at the Governoi-'s 
palace is certain to be given once a month. 

The aborigines of Loanda owe much to the Catholic Church. Its 
priests have taught the natives many trades and industries. There 
are four newspapers published in the city, but they deal mainly in 
unpleasant personalities. 

Even more important than Angola, in a commercial and political 
sense, is the Portuguese province to the south, known as Benguella, 
with Benguella as the capital. The town is an old one and has not 
shared the decay incident to the early Portuguese settlementson the 
western coast. The harbor is excellent, and is the entrepot to the 
celebrated Bihe section, through a series of tribes which Pinto 
visited and which he describes as of superior physique and intelli- 
gence. Benguella was once the seat of an active slave trade, and 
Monteiro says, in his volume published in 1875, that he has seen 
caravans of 3,000 blacks coming into Benguella from Bih^, fully 
1,000 of which were slaves. The white settlers cleared many fine 
plantations about Benguella, which they stocked with slaves and 
upon which large crops of cotton were formerly raised. The con- 
tiguous tribe is the Mundombe, wild and roving, dirty and selfish, 
little clothed and living in low round-roofed huts. Cattle are their 
principal riches, yet they seldom partake of their flesh, except upon 
feast .days, when the whole tribe assembles, and as many as 300 
head of fine cattle are dispatched in a single day. 

It is only within the last few years that this region has been 
entered by the Protestant missionaries. In 1880 the American 
Board sent out three missionaries to Benguella, the port of the Bihd 
country. They were Eev. Walter W. Bagster, grandson of Samuel 
Bagster, pubhsher of the Polyglot Bible, and the leader of the expe- 
dition ; the Bev. Wm. H. Sanders, son of a missionary in Ceylon ; 
and Mr. Samuel T. Miller, both of whose parents were slaves. The 
kings of Bailunda and Bih6 showed themselves friendly, and the 



526 MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFEICA. 

missionaries, since reinforced, entered liopefallj upon tlieir work. 
On February 22, 1882, Mr. Bagster died fi'om malarial fever. 
Bishop Taylor has opened up a number of stations in Angola, of 
which mention will be made when we come to speak of his work in 
establishing self-supporting missions in Africa. 

A wonderful field has been opened up along the mighty Congo 
for missionary effort. Ten years ago the king of Belgium entered 
upon the development of the Congo region and the establishment 
of a new African State. An of&cial report of the progress attained 
has just been rendered, giving these facts : The Lower Congo has 
been opened up to navigation by large vessels as far as Boma, sound- 
ings having been made and the course marked out by buoys ; a 
cadastral survey of the Lower Congo has been made as a step 
towards the preparation of a general map of the entire region ; jus- 
tice is regularly administered in the Lower Congo, and a trustworthy 
and cheap postal service has been established. At Banana, Boma, 
and Leopoldville medical establishments, under the direction of 
Belgian doctors, have been founded, and a considerable armed force 
of blacks, officered by Europeans, has been called into existence. 
The caravan route between Matadi and Leopoldville is as free fi'om 
danger as a European road, and a complete service of porterage by 
natives has been estabhshed. A railway has been projected and the 
route almost entirely surveyed. The state has established herds of 
cattle at various stations, and in the very heart of Africa ; on the 
waters of the Upper Congo there is a fleet of steamers every year 
increasing in number. A loan of 150,000,000 francs has been 
authorized and the first issue subscribed. Many of the more intelli- 
gent natives from the country drained by the Upper Congo have 
taken service with the State, and numerous trading factories have 
been established as far up the river as Bangala and Leuebo. In 
addition several private companies have been formed for developing 
the country, and finally geographical discoveries of the greatest 
importance liave been made, either by the ofl&cers of the State or by 
travelers who received great assistance in their work from the 
State. 

Speaking of the Congo Mission Dr. Pierson in the Missionary 
Review says : " A grand open door is that which God has set before 



-MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 627 

our Baptist brethren in the Congo basin ! a million square miles in 
the heart of equatorial Africa, made accessible by the great Congo 
and its tributaries. 

" The great lakes, Njassa, Victoria, Tangasiyika, are compara- 
tively isolated ; but the Congo and its branches present from 4,000 to 
6,000 miles of river roadway, needing only steamers or canoes to 
give access to these teeming millions. One starts at the mouth of 
this imperial stream and ascends 125 miles of navigable river, then 
for 185 miles encounters rapids and cataracts; but beyond that for 
over 1,000 miles, from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls, is one grand 
stretch of navigable river, with branches running each way navi- 
gable from 100 to 800 miles, and leading into the heart of this rich 
and populous territory, 

"Tlie people from the river-mouth up to Stanley Pool and the 
Equator line are being civilized by contact with white traders, and 
their pagan customs largely modified. They speak one language, 
musical, of large capacity of expression and easy of acquisition, and 
along this line the seven Congo stations are already planted. Beyond 
the point where the Congo crosses the Equator, lies another vast 
population, more degraded, less civilized, and needing at once the 
full array of Christian institutions, but yet entirely destitute. 

" Their moral and spiritual state is hardly conceivable without 
contact with them. With no idea of God or immortality, they 
worship fetish charms ; sickness is not brought about by natural 
causes, but is the result of enchantment; hence the medicine-man 
must trace disease and death to some unhappy human victim or 
victims, who must suffer the witch's penalty. One death therefore 
means another — it may be a dozen. Here runaway slaves are 
crucified, robbers buried alive, young men cruelly decapitated, and 
human beings are even devoured for meat. 

" And yet this people, after centuries of virtual seclusion, are now 
both literally and morally accessible. They welcome missionaries, 
come to the chapels, and prove teachable. Even now cruel customs 
and supei'stitious notions are giving way before patient, humble, 
scriptural instruction. The walls are down, and the hosts of God 
have but to march straight on and take what Dr. Sims calls 'the 
last stronghold of Paganism,' 



628 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

" Wonderfully indeed has God linked Protestant, Greek, Roman 
Catholic, and even Moslem nations in the administration of the 
Congo Free State. Never was such a highway open for the Gospel 
since our Lord ascended. 

" The Arabs from Zanzibar and the coast are moving toward 
Stanley Falls and the north country, establishing themselves in 
large villages to capture slaves and carry on nefarious traiSc, virhile 
the Protestant forces slowly move upward from the west. The 
question is, Who is to occupy the Congo Basin ? and the question 
is to be settled at once. This great highway of rivers means trafiic 
and travel ; this rich and splendid tropical country invites trade 
and settlement. Into whose hands shall sucli a heritage be sur- 
rendered? The Christian Church .must give prompt answer by 
action, her reply must be a taking possession, and the old law is the 
new one : ' Every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon 
shall be yours: ' the resolutions of enthusiastic missionary conven- 
tions, the prayers of all Christendom, the planting of the banner of 
the cross at a few commanding points — all this will not do. We 
must send out enough Christian laborers to measure off that soil 
with their own feet. 

" ' But it is unhealthy ? ' So are all tropical and especially equa- 
torial climes to those who are not accustomed to the intense and 
steady heat, and do not use common sense in adapting their cloth- 
ing, eating and drinking, and habits of life, to these peculiar sur- 
roundings. One must not go from temperate to torrid zone, and 
wear the garments, eat the heating food, use the stimulating drinks, 
risk the exhausting labors, or even live in the same unventilated 
houses which are permissible in coolor latitudes. A trip to New 
Orleans or Florida has proved fatal to many a fool who would not 
take advice. Even the heroism of the Gospel does not demand need- 
less exposure or careless venture. 

" Here is a grand opportunity. It may be doubted whether 
there has been anything like it since the clarion voice of our Great 
Captain trumpeted forth tlie last commission. Ethiopia is stretch- 
ing forth her hands unto God. On those hands are the marks of 
manacles which England and America helped to rivet there. 
There is but one atonement we can make for Africa's wrongs — 



MISSIONARY WOUK IN AFHICA. 



629 



it is to lay down our lives, if need be, to redeem her sable sous from 
the captivity of sin. 

" We ought to turn this Congo into a river of life, crowd its 
waters with a flotilla of Henry Reeds, line its banks with a thou- 
sand chapel spires, plant its villages with Christian schools, let the 
Congo Free State mark its very territory with the sign of Christian^ 
institutions, so that to cross its border will be to pass from darkness 




NATIVE GRASS HOUSE ON THE CONGO. 

into light. Where is our Christian enterprise, that such a work, 
with such a field and such promise, should wait for workmen and 
for money ! What do our converted young men want, as a chance 
to crowd life with heroic service, that the Congo Basin does not 
attract them ! Here what a century ago would have taken fifty 



630 MISSIONARY WORK IF AFRICA. 

years to accomplish, may be done in five. The unexplored interior 
is open, the ' Dark Continent ' waits to be illuminated. Nature has 
cast up her highway of waters, and there is no need to gather out 
the stones. Give us ooly the two-wheeled chariot, with steam as 
the steed to draw it, and the men and women to go in it bearing 
the Gospel, and from end to end of this highway we can scatter the 
leaves of that tree which are for the healing of the nations. 

" Where are the successors of Moffatt and Livingstone ! What 
a hero was he who dared forty attacks of fever and then died on his 
knees beside Lake Bangweolo, that he might open up the dark 
recesses of Africa to the missionary ! Let us pour men and money 
at the feet of our Lord. We have not yet paid our debt to Simon 
the Cyrenean and the Eunuch of Ethiopia ! " 

The Baptist church has for years carried on energetic mission 
work in Africa. The Englisli Baptist Missionary Society, working 
in co-operation with American Baptists, has pushed its way, by 
means of flourishing stations far up the Congo and into the interior. 
In 1885, it presented a steamer, on the Upper Congo, to the Amer- 
ican missionaries, and then proceeded to build another for its own 
use. Dr. Guinness, the president of this large and prosperous soci- 
ety, on a visit to the United States in 1889, spoke thus of the mis- 
sionary field in Africa: "Stanley was three years in discovering 
the source of the Congo, and though he met hundreds of strange 
tribes in that journey of 1000 miles, he never saw a mission station. 
He found difiiculty in coming down this region, but our missiona- 
ries sent out to evangelize this country found their difficulty in 
going up. We found it comparatively easy to found a station near 
the mouth, and as far as a hundred miles up. After years of labor 
we reached Stanley Pool, which is the key to the interior, but not 
without the loss of hundreds of lives. 

"The mission in Africa is in its infancy. Africa is a world in 
itself. The languages spoken would take more than ten hours to 
enumerate, as there are over 600. They are principally the great 
Soudanese groups. I gave a year to making the first grammar of 
the Congo language that was ever prepared. More than 1000 
natives have been converted. In this work there is the stage of 
pure indifference, succeeded by one of inquiry, then hostility, and 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 631 

finally acquiescence. The natives themselves becomes in many 
cases messengers of the Gospel. 

" I don't know under Heaven, unless it be in China, a more hope- 
ful mission than that Congo field, and here it is for yon. You have 
now water-way to the whole of it. It is healthy, notwithstanding 
all statements to the contrary. The interior is healthy, because it 
is bigh land, well watered, richly wooded, moderate in its climate, 
and rich in population. The trouble with missionaries has been 
that they stick to the coast line, which is malarious. Instead of 
keeping up in the ordinary way in red-tape style a particular sta- 
tion with a few missionaries, you want to make an advance into 
this great interior parish. It is no use for your people in this coun- 
try to say : ' This is the colored men's work, let them do it.' They 
are not suited to be the explorers and controllers of such movements. 
White men must be the leaders and lay the foundation, when the 
<3olored men will be the helpei's." 

Mr. Guinness is maturing plans for a grand advance of three col- 
umns of missionaries to go simultaneously up the three branches of 
the Congo — -northern, central and southei'n. The central one may 
be considered as started a fortnight since, by the departure of eight 
missionaries from London, to work as an English auxiliary to the 
American Baptist Missionary Union. 

Mr. Eichards, of the American Baptist Missionary Union, reports 
that the work at Banza Manteke, the place where so many converts 
have been baptized, is still prospering. The young church has been 
greatly tried by persecution as well as by sickness and death. Not 
less than twenty of those baptized have died, and the fatalitj' hns 
been a great stumbling-block to the heathen, who have asserted 
that the sickness was sent by their gods because they have been 
neglected. This has prevented many from accepting the Christian 
faith. The heathen are bitterly opposed, and would take the lives 
of the Christians if they could. Eecently 17 were baptized, and 
others are asking for the ordinance, and the knowledge of the truth 
is spreading far and wide. 

Those who become intimately acquainted with the negro race as 
found in various parts of Africa bear testimony to its good quali- 
ties. The coast negro who has learned some of the vices of civili- 



632 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

zation is undoubtedly a sorry specimen of humanity ; but where 
native tribes can be found uncontaminated by contact with foreign- 
ers, they exhibit sterling qualities. Eev. George Grenfell, who has 
visited all the tribes along the Congo, says that the negro would 
stand his ground before the white man. " There is a vitality of 
race and power about him that is going to make him take his place 
some day among the nations of earth." In support of this opinion, 
he gives several incidents showing the vigor and fidelity of the 
natives, and especially mentioned an incident which he witnessed at 
Banza Manteka, the station at which the American Baptists have 
recently received so many converts. Three years ago their place 
was a stronghold of grossest superstitions, and there seemed no hope 
of a spiritual harvest; but as Mr. Grenfell was coming down the 
river, on his way to England, he met a band of native evangelists 
going forth on an evangelistic tour. They had set out of their own 
accord, without even the knowledge of the missionary, evidently 
taking upon themselves the Lord's command to go and preach the 
Gospel. They had not only forsaken their own superstitions, but 
were vigorously seeking to propagate their new faith. 

We have thus given in brief outline a sketch of the work done 
on the west coast of Africa and some of the countries in Central 
Africa which are reached tli rough the west coast. In no part of 
the world has the Gospel achieved more signal triumphs than here, 
among this barbarous people. When the present century opened, 
the slave trade, with its untold horrors, held everywhere undis- 
puted sway. Human sacrifices and other cruelties were fearfully 
prevalent. Eevellings and abominable idolatries, with the other 
works of the flesh described in the fifth chapter of Galatians, were 
mdulged in to a frightful extent and without the slightest restraint. 
There was then not one ray of light to relieve the dense darkness 
that universally prevailed. It is otherwise now. Though little 
has been done compared with what remains to be done, still the 
slave trade and many other cruel practices have received their death 
blow. The standard of the Cross has been planted all along the 
western shores, and even far into the interior of that great conti- 
nent. In all West Africa, called " The White Man's Grave," from 
be,negambia on the north, where the Paris Society is laboring, to 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN At^RlCA. 633 

Benguelia oil the south, where the American Board has begun to 
work, there are more than a hundred stations and over 200 English, 
German, French and native missionaries, belonging to sixteen 
societies, with 120,000 converts. And were it not for the evils of 
civilization, which are so much easier for the poor barbarians to 
learn than the virtues, there would be nothing to prevent the uni- 
versal spread of the Gospel in Western Africa, for the people there 
are willing to receive the simple proclamation of Divine truth, and 
the Christian church is awaking to the glorious privilege of making 
it known unto them. 

Little mention has been made of the work of Bishop Taylor in 
this sketch of the missions of Western Africa. His work is of 
such recent date, and of so unique a character that we deemed it of 
sufficient importance to warrant a fuller treatment than could be 
given in connection with the other missions. By this method also 
we can give a much clearer idea of what he has done. As his 
mission stations are confined to Western Africa, and regions 
entered by way of the west coast, this is the proper place to speak 
of his enterprise. 

Perhaps the most notable missionary movement of the age is that 
started by Bishop Wm. Taylor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
on the continent of Africa. Bishop Taylor is of Scotch-Irish parent- 
age, his grand parents having immigrated from County Armah, 
Ireland, to Virginia about 130 years ago. They were Revolutinary 
patriots and so hostile to slavery that they set all slaves free, belong- 
ing to the family. His father, Stuart Taylor, married Martha A. 
Hickman, and they settled in Rockbridge County in 1819. They 
were Presbyterians, but eventually became converts to Methodism. 
Tiie son, William, was born May 21, 1821. In 1843 he was attached 
to the Baltimore Conference. He came into notice as a Methodist 
street preacher, of extraordinary power, in San Francisco, in 1849. 
He established a church there and continued to preach till 1856. 
Being a natural pioneer in the mission field, full of pluck and 
original ideas, he visited other parts of the United States and went 
into Canada and England. Then he went to the West Indies and 
into British Guiana, preaching and founding churches. Next, he 
visited Australia, where he met with a success which may well be 



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MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 635 

called phenomenal. The same success attended his trip to Tasmania 
and New Zealand. With a foot that never tired, he went to South 
Africa and then to the Island of Ceylon, awakening the people by 
his eloquence and earnestness. He returned through India, arous- 
ing the sleeping nations, and leaving as a permanent monument to 
his fame the fully organized South India Methodist Conference. 

He was now in the midst of his powers, and with well defined 
aims as to the plan and scope of mission establishments. As to 
himself, personal work was what was required ; as to the missions 
a sense of independence which would conduce to their growth and 
perpetuity. No mission was to be an asylum for lazy, superan- 
nuated men and women, drawing on a home fund for support, but 
each was to be self-supporting as far as possible, after its period of 
juvenility was over. Full of this impression he entered the 
Brazillian country, or for that matter, South America at large, and 
began a work of founding missions which astounded his church 
aijd the world by its success. Schools and churches sprang up as 
if by magic, right in the midst of populations wedded to the old 
Catholic creeds and forms, and the effect of his evangelism is as 
far reaching as time. 

After this he turned his attention to Africa, as a field calling most 
loudly for civilization and Christianity ; and more, as the field best 
suited to his evangelizing methods. He was elected Bishop of 
Africa by the General Conference of the Methodist Church, in May, 
1884, and sailed for his new and limitless parish in December, 1884. 
After four years of heroic struggle, with successes which in everv 
way justified his labors and plans, he returned to the United States 
in April, 1888, and sailed again for Africa in December of the same 
year, having equipped and sent in advance, November 13, 1888j 
twenty new missionaries. 

liis Transit and Building Fund bore the expense, and it was 
well supplied for the emergency by voluntary contributions from 
the United States and Canada. Fifteen homes in Africa became a 
requisite for these Christian workers, together with at least a year's 
sustenance. Still the fund failed not, but had to spare for the 
Bishop's personal comfort. Thus at one end of the Christian line 
work inured to the supply of necessities which should lead up to 



036 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

self-support in the missionary field, and at the other end it shaped 
for the development of those indigenous resources which should 
establish independence. 

The characteristics of his work, aside from his individual energy, 
wonderful ingenuity, and magnetic power, are | 

(1) Self- supporting Missions. Missionaries are provided with a^ 
suitable outfit, have their passage paid, are provided with a home*' 
and seeds for planting. They are expected to do the best with the 
first year's equipment, and to take such steps as will put them on 
an independent footing by the second year. This is not more a test 
of their own industry and efficiency, than an example to the natives 
to live in peace and adopt civilized means of obtaining a livelihood. 
It is an invitation to heroic spirits to enter the mission field, and is 
an earnest of tact and endurance which must prove of infinite value 
to those with whom they are in contact. It is the nearest approach 
any church has ever made to the thought, that a spiritual avenue to 
the heathen, and especially the shrewd African heathen, is most 
direct when it leads up through his business and work-a-day instincts 
to his heart. 

(2) Native Cooperation. Tins is best assured by appearing to be 
on an equality with them. The missionary who is backed by a 
home exchequer and who is not compelled to resort to ordinary 
means of subsistence, is apt to grow exclusive and become a source 
of envy and suspicion. He is far more potential when he is as 
much one of his people as circumstances will allow, and like them 
dependent on the ordinary laws of industry for subsistence. There 
is but little risk in this to the man of energy, skill and health, 
where climate and soil are favorable for production, and all nature 
conspires to reward industry. It attracts the natives, secures their 
confidence and cooperation, and adapts them for the almost uncon- 
scious receipt of enlightenment and Christianity. Nothing so dis- 
arms them of suspicion, or serves better to silence controversy, than 
this quiet show of permanent settlement in their midst and the 
atmosphere of thrifty contentment which surrounds a newly-made 
mission home and vegetable garden. 

(3) Elements of a Pure Civilization. The school goes with the 
mission, the garden and field with the school. Sermons there are, 



MISSIOISTAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 637 

but not to the neglect of school work. School-hours there are, 
but not to the neglect of soil cultivation. Practical education is 
paramount. The seeds, the trees, the plants, which are fitted for 
the climate, are planted and tended, and the natives are asked to 
come and work bj the side of the missionary and to learn the art 
of turning the earth to account. Thus a primitive Industrial School 
is started in every mission, and the laws of thrift and self-depen- 
dence go hand in hand with those of morality and spirituality. As 
things have gone, it is surely a novel, and perhaps a hard, life for 
a missionary, but in that it is an effective means of conversion and 
enlightenment, the sacrifice does not seem too great. After all, does 
it not entirely meet the objections of those who so vehemently 
urge that the only way to make missionary work successful among 
African natives is to wait until commerce has reconciled them to 
contact with the outer world ? 

(4) Not Confined to the Ordinary Ministry. It opens the field of 
missionary endeavor to earnest, moral men of every occupation. 
Teachers, artisans, laborers in every branch of industry, become 
invaluable servants of the Lord, under this system. Children as 
well as parents may share the honors of introducing Christ in this 
practical way, the key to which is example. What so inspiring as 
the confidence of equalitj^ and co-labor ! To be like a teacher in 
what appertains to material welfare, is father to a wish to be like 
him or her in what appertains to spiritual welfare. 

(5) Coast- Line Missions. These are practicable and necessary 
at first. But they are only evangelical bases for the more numer- 
ous and grander structures soon to be erected within the continent. 

In support of his system the Bishop brings to bear an experience 
wider than that of any living missionary, to which must be added 
a special study of the African natives and the entire African 
situation. 

He says that the untutored heathen of Africa have no vain phi- 
losophy by which to explain away their perception of God as a great 
personal being. Theyhave their " greegrees," "charms" and "armu- 
lets," but they never pray to them, they cry to God in the day of 
trouble. In the extreme south God's name is " Dahlah," "Tixo " 
and " Enkosi." In south central Africa His name is " En Zambe." 



638 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 

The Zambesi river is called after God. On the west coast his name 
is " JSTiswah." All these words express clear perceptions of one 
great God of heaven and earth. 

He further relates that one day he was preaching to King Da- 
massi of the Ama Pondo nation, about the resurrection. One of 
the king's counsellors expressed dissent from the Bishop's doctrine. 
The king, a giant in physique, frowned at him and said: " Hold 
your tongue you scoundrel ! You know well our fathers believed 
in the resurrection of the dead, and so do we." 

When a Kaffirman dies they dig a grave about two feet wide 
and five deep and let the corpse down in a squatting position. But 
before it is lowered they seat him beside the grave, to allow anyone 
who wishes to talk with it. This is consequence of their belief 
that though the spirit has left the body it still lingers near for a 
last communication with friend or foe. If any present has an unad- 
justed quarrel with the hovering spirit, he approaches and makes 
his peace, and then begs that the shade will not return to bewitch 
his children or cattle. Others come and send messages of peace to 
their fathers by means of the departing spirit, and still others send 
word very much as if the departure of a spirit were a sure means 
of communication between this and the final home of good people. 
When analyzed, their belief is supreme that the body returns to 
dust at death, but that the spirit is immortal ; that the spirit retains 
all its faculties and forces, and has independent senses correspond- 
ing with the bodily senses; that good spirits dwell with God in hap- 
piness and that those who follow wiil com.mune with them. These 
things they have never learned from books, nor teachers. They 
are intuitions. 

In February, 1888, Bishop Taylor visited a dead chief, near 
Tataka on the Ca valla river. He had been a prominent man, a 
giant in size, and had given leave to found a mission in his tribe. 
But he knew no language but his own and had never heard the 
Gospel preached. He was found sleeping tranquilly in death, and 
inquiry revealed the fact that he had talked all through the night 
of his death with " Niswah "—God— and had called on Ilim 
repeatedly— "Niswah, I am your man ! "''" Niswah, I trust you ! '.' 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 639 

'* Niswah, I accept jou ! " Belief, even unto salvation, could not 
have been seemingly stronger. 

To translate the Christian Bible into the languages spoken by 
those among whom missionary effort is put forth, has always been 
regarded as a necessary step to successful apostolic work. It would 
be an herculean, if not impossible task in a countrj'- where lan- 
guages are so numerous and dialects so diverse as in Africa. Even 
if not so, the task requires scholarship of a high order, patience 
such as few mortals possess, time which might count for much if 
otherwise employed, and an exchequer which can be drawn upon 
indefinitely. Bishop Taylor has reversed the old procedure in his 
missionary contact with the African natives. Still recognizing the 
necessity for learning their languages in order to facilitate commu- 
nication, he, however, insists that they shall learn ours, as a means 
of fuller expression of ideas, and especially of those ideas which 
represent newly acquired knowledge and quickened spiritual emo- 
tions. But how should he overcome the formidable obstacle our 
language presents, in its complicated grammar and orthography, to 
all foreigners ? Especially, how should the African boy and girl, 
in the mission school, be taught what our own more favored boys 
and girls find so appallingly difficult ? Tlte Bishop's way out of it 
was to introduce the phonetic, or natural sound, element into his 
mission schools. It proved, in commoii parlance, a hit from the 
start. Here is a sample of his English, as phonetically adapted for 
his African pupils : 

" Bishop Taylor findz our English mod ov speling wun ov the 
gratest drabalcsin teching the nativz ; and also wun ov the gratist 
obstiklz in redusing the nativ languajez toriting. Mishunarez evri 
whar hav kompland ov thez dificultez. Bishop Taylor haz kut the 
Gordian not ; or at lest haz so far swung los from komun uzaj az to 
adopt Pitman'z fonetik stil ov reding, riting and teching. 

" Justrita fu pajz, speling az we do her; and then, 'just for the 
fun ov it,' rit a few letrz to frend? in the sam stil. Bi the tim u 
hav dun so, u wil be enarard with its ez, and son will pronouns it 
butiful az wel az ezi. Tech it to sum children and se how qikli 
tha wil mastr it." 

Probably no better description can be given of what has already 



640 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

been accomplished, than that found in his report to the Missionary 
Committee, which we give in full, and in extracts from his recent 
letters. 

BISHOP TAYLOR'S REPORT TO THE MISSIONARY COMMITTEE. 
^^ Dear Brethren and Fellow-laborers in the work of the Lord: 

"I respectfully submit the following report of our new missions 
in Africa. The report of the African Conference I sent, as usual, to 
the missionary secretaries immediately after its adjournment last 
February. I might repeat the same here, but did not retain a copy, 
and leaving Liberia in April, and ever since moving on, I have not 
received a copy of the printed minutes. 

" I will, in this report, note the stations in the order in which I 
visited them this year, and not in the order of time in which they 
were founded. 

" West Coast Stations. — Most of these stations commenced, with 
mission-houses erected on them, two years ago, when a portion of 
them were supplied with missionaries, a portion not till March of 
this year ; and two or three remain to be supplied. Miss Dingman 
and Miss Bates have gone out since I left Liberia, and I have not 
heard where Brother Kephart has stationed them. It was under- 
stood from the beginning that we could not take boarding-scholars, 
nor open our school- work regularly till we could produce from the 
soil plenty of native food for their sustenance, and build school- 
houses. I arranged for building fourteen houses in our missions on 
the west coast this year for chapel and school purposes. I have 
received no general report since I left in April ; hence, I cannot say 
how many of these houses have been completed. They were to be 
good frame and weather-boarded and shingle-roofed houses, 18x26 
feet, and will, I doubt not, be all finished before the end of this 
year. 

" Gavalla River District. — B. F. Kephart, P. E. 

"(1) Wissihah Station, about forty miles up from the mouth of 
the river. Its king, chiefs and people received a missionary, built 
him a good native house and supported him for several months, 
when he was removed to supply a larger station vacated by one 
who withdrew from our work ; so Wissikah remains to be sup- 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 641 

plied. Probable value of our land and improvements on Wissikah 
Station, $500. 

" (2) Yubloky, ascending the stream, also on the west bank of 
Ca valla river. Missionary, J. R. Ellery. A good basis of self- 
susteiitation ab'eady laid. Probable value, $1,000. 

" (3) Yorkey. — Andrew Ortlip, missionary. Eegular preaching 
in both of these stations, and some progress in teaching. Probable 
value, $1,000. 

" (4) Tataka, on the east bank of the river. Miss Rose Bowers 
and Miss Annie Whitfield, missionaries. These are very earnest 
missionaries, and have done an immense amount of hard work, 
teaching, talking of God and salvation to the people in their own 
houses and growing most of their own food. Probable value of 
land improvements, $1,000, 

"(5) Beabo. — H. Garwood, missionary. Brother Garwood was 
appointed to Beabo last March, and will, I trust, make a success, 
which was but limited under the administration of his predecessor, 
who is a good man but not a self-supporting success, and has hence 
returned home. Beabo is on the west bank of the river, and has 
adequate resources of self-support, and of opportunities for useful- 
ness. Probable value, $900. 

" (6) Bararoho, on the east bank. Chas. Owens and E. 0. Har- 
ris, missionaries.- This station, with two energetic young men to 
develop its capabilities, will, I hope, in the near future prove a suc- 
cess. Probable value, $900. 

"(7) Gerribo^ west bank. A mission-house built two years ago, 
but the station remains to be supplied. Probable value, $800. 

" (8) Wallaky is the big town of the Gerribo tribe, twelve miles 
west of Gerribo town, on west bank of the river. Our missionary 
^t Wallaky is Wm. Schneidmiller, a zfealous young man from Bal- 
timore. Having been brought up in a city, he has much to learn 
to become an effective backwoods pioneer ; but he has faith, love, 
'push, and patience and is succeeding. Probable value, $900. 

" We have traveled nearly a hundred miles up the river, almost 
equal to the Hudson, and then west twelve miles to Wallaky. Now 
we go south by a narrow path over rugged mountain, hills and 
dales, a distance of about forty miles to. 
41 



642 MISSIONAEY WOKE IN AFRICA. 

''{9)Plebo. — Wm. Yancey and wife, missionaries. A hopeful 
young station of good possibilities. Probable value, $900. 

" Nine miles walking westerly we reach 

"(10) Barrehy. — Wm. Warner and wife, missionaries. They are 
hard workers, and are bound to make self-support. Brother Warnei- 
is mastering the native language, and when ready to preach in it. 
will have open to him a circuit of eleven towns belonging to the 
Barreky tribe. Probable value, |900. 

" On eight of the ten stations just named, we have frame, weather- 
boarded, shingle-roofed houses, the floors elevated about six feet 
above ground ; the whole set on pillars of native logs from the 
forest. In all these places, also, school-houses, as before intimated, 
are being built. Each station is in a tribe entirely distinct and 
separate from every other tribe, and each river town represents a 
larger population far back in the interior of the wild country. 

" Cape Palmas District.— B. F. Kephart, P. E. Brother Kephart i& 
Presiding Elder of Mt. Scott and Tubmantown Circuit. Sister Kep- 
hart is a grand helper. They are teaching the people the blessed- 
ness of giving adequately to support their pastors. These people 
are confronted by two formidable difficulties, their old-established 
habits of being helped, and their poverty and lack of ability to help 
themselves; but they are being blest in giving like the Widow of 
Serepta, and will, I hope, work their way out. 

" Clarence Gunnison, our missionary carpenter, and Prof. B. H. 
Greely. B. A., to be principal of our academy and missionary train- 
ing-school in Cape Palmas, as soon as we shall get the seminary 
repaired, have their headquarters at Gape Palmas, but are engaged 
in building school-houses, and will then (D. V.) repair the seminary 
buildings, both in Cape Palmas and in Monrovia. We had unex- 
pected detention in getting suitable lumber for repairs, but can now 
get the best Norway pine delivered on the ground at a cheap rate. 
" (11) PZ«%, across Hoffman River, from Cape Palmas, is the 
beginning of our Kru coast hue of stations. Miss Lizzie McNeal 's 
the missionary. Though two years in the station, we have not yet 
built a mission -house in Pluky. Miss McNeal teaches school in a 
native house in the midst of the town, and preaches on Sabbath 
days under the shade of a bread-fruit tree. Her school-house is 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA, 



643 



crowded, and she has six of her boys and three girls converted to 
God, who testify" for Jesus in her meetings, and help her in her soul- 
saving work. Probable value, $800, in land. Miss Barbara Miller 
assists her temporarily, but her specialties are kindergarten and 
music, awaiting the opening of the academy. 

" (12) Garaway^ twenty miles northwest of Cape Palmas. Miss 
Agnes McAllister is ii\ charge of the station, and Miss Clara Binkley 
has special charge of our educational department, both working suc- 
cessfully as missionaries. Aunt Rachel, a Liberian widow woman, 
runs the farm, and produces indigenous food enough to feed two or 




GARAWAY MISSION HOUSE. 



three stations. This is a station of great promise. Probable vnlue, 
$1,200. We have a precious deposit in a little cemetery on the 
plain, in sight of the mission-house, of the consecrated blood and 
bones of dear Brother Gardner and dear Sister Meeker. 

"(13) Piquinini Ses. — Miss Anna Beynon is in special charge of 
the household department. Miss Georgianna Dean has charge of 
the school-work, and Victor Hugo, a young German missionar^^, 
has chnrge of the school farm. Mrs. Nelson, a Liberian widow, is 
chief cook. They are succeeding hopefully for beginners. ^J^his 



Q4A MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

station is about thirty miles nortliwest of Cape Palmas. Probable 
value, $1,100. 

" (14) Grand Ses.—Jas. B. KobertsoD, assisted by Mr. Ilanse, a 
Congo young man, who was saved at a series of meetings I con- 
ducted in Cape Palmas, in 1885. They are just getting started in 
their work, but already see signs of awakening among the people. 
Probable value, $1,100. 

"(15)>S'a5 Town. — Missionaries, K. Yaleiftine Eckman, R. C. 
Grifiith. I spent a month in Sas Town last spring, and we have 
there a church organization of probationers, numbering twenty-five 
Krumen. Probable value, $1,400. 

" (16) Mffu.—To be supphed. Probable value, $1,000. 

"(17) Nan7ia Kru. — Henry Wright appointed last April, not 
heard from since. Probable value, $1,000. 

^' (IS) /Settr a Kru. — B.J.Turner and wife. A fair promise of 
success in farming, teaching and preaching. Probable value, 
$1,100.. 

" On each of these Kvu stations named, except Pinky, we have a 
mission-house of frame, elevated on pillars, six feet above ground ; 
floors of boards from the saw-pits of Liberia, siding and roofing of 
galvanized iron; each house measuring in length thirty-six feet, 
breadth twenty-two feet, beside veranda, providing space for a cen- 
tral hall, 12x22 feet, and two rooms at each end, 11x12 feet. There 
is not a Liberian or foreigner of any sort in any of the stations 
named on Cavalla Piver or Kru Coast, except our missionaries, all 
heathens, as nude as any on the Congo, except a few men of them 
who 'follow the sea;' hence, our houses, which would not be 
admired in New York City, are considered to be 'houses of big 
America for true.' 

" (19) Ehenezer, west side of Sinou River, nearly twenty miles 
from Sinou. New house just completed. Z. Roberts in charge. A 
school of over twenty scholars opened. The king of the tribe hns 
proclaimed Sunday as God's, and ordered his people not to work on 
God's day, but go to his house and hear his Word. This mission 
supersedes Jacktown, on the east bank of Sinou River, where we 
proposed last spring to found a mission, but did not. Ebenezer is 
worth to us $800 at least. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AJ^RICA. 646 

"(20) Benson River. — Missionary, Dr. Dan Williams. This is in 
Grand Bassa Country, difficult of access ; hence, in my hasty voy- 
ages along the coast I have not yet been able to visit the Doctor, 
and cannot report definitely. He is holding on, and will, I hope, 
hold out and make a success in all his departments of work. The 
station ought to be worth $800. 

" The Benson River Station is in the bounds of Grand Bassa Dis- 
trict. We arranged for building on two other^tations in Grand 
Bassa Country at the same time that I provided for Benson River ; 
namely. King Kie Peter's big town, and Jo Benson's town ; but at 
last account the houses were not built, so for the time we drop them 
off our list. They are on a great caravan trail to the populous 
interior. We will take them up or better ones by and by. 

" From the west coast we proceed by steamer to the great 
Congo country. Two days above Congo mouth we land at Maj- 
umba, and proceed in boats seventeen miles up an inland lake to 
IViamby, where Miss Martha E. Kah is stationed, and where our Brother 
A. I. Sortore sleeps in Christ. Wlien we settled there it was 
in the bounds of the ' Free State of Congo,' but later the published 
decrees of the Berlin Conference put it under the wing of the French 
Government. The French authorities have recognized and regis- 
tered our native title to 100 acres of good land, and are not 
unfriendly to us by any means, but ' by law ' forbid us to teach any 
language but French. Good has been done at Mamby, and is being 
done. Owing to this disability we have proposed to abandon it, 
but Martha Kah is entirely unwilling to leave, and as it is our only- 
footing in French territory, and as they hold a vast region, peopled 
by numerous nations of African heathen, we have thought it best 
thus far to hold on to Mamby. Probable value, $1,000. 

" (21) Kahinda^ near the Congo mouth. I never have had time 
to make the acquaintance of any person at Kabinda. Having full 
confidence in J. L. Judson as a man of superior ability and integrity, 
I gave him letters to the Portuguese governor of Kabinda, request- 
ing the consent and co-operation of his excellency, to enable Judson 
to found a mission tliere. His excellency received him most cor- 
dially, gave him a public dinner, the merchants of the place being 
guests. For a year he reported extraordinary success in every 



646 jiiSSiONARY WOEK l^ afrIOA. 

department of his work. He went in by a dash, and went out like 
a flash — bj sudden death. 

" I called at Kabinda last May, and learned from a merchant 
there that King Frank, of whom Judson bought our mission prem- 
ises, held the property for nonpayment, which Judson had reported 
all settled, conveyed, and deed recorded. King Frank, at the time 
of my call, was absent away up the coast, so that I could not reach 
the exact facts. I liave written to tlie merchant whom I met, 
requesting him to find out the facts, but have as yet received no 
reply. So things at Kabinda are in a tangle at present. I have 
not yet found time to go and unravel it. To recover it or lose it 
will neither make nor break us, but we shall r- gret to lose it. 

" Passing the mouth of the Congo Kiver, we proceed by steamer 
over 300 miles to the beautiful land-locked harbor of St. Paul de 
Loanda. This Portuguese town has many massive buildings, 
including churches in ruins, dating back over 300 years. It has an 
estimated population of 5,000, a few hundred of whom are Portu- 
guese (one English house of business), the rest being negroes. 
From the beginning we have had adequate self-supporting resources 
in Loanda from the Portuguese patronage of our schools, and have 
now, but at present we lack the teaching corps requisite. 

" Wm. P. Dodson, who succeeded C. M. McLean, who returned 
home last May on account of sickness, is our minister at Loanda. 
He is a holy young man, a good linguist in Portuguese and Kim- 
bundu, and is doing a good work. He has one fine young native 
man saved, whom I baptized during my recent visit. I learn since 
that he is leading a new life, and becoming a valuable helper in our 
work. Our mission property in Loanda is worth at least $10,000. 
It is quite unnecessary for Loanda or for any other station we have 
in Africa to add ' and no debts,' for we have none. 

"We are trying to find just the right man and wife for our school 
in Loanda, but would rather wait for years than to get unsuitable 
persons. 

" From Loanda we proceed by steamer sixty miles south by sea, 
and cross the bar into the mouth of Coanza Eiver, as large as the 
Hudson, and ascend 180 miles to Dondo, at the head of steamboat 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 



647 



navigation. Dondo is a noted trading centre, and has a population 
of about 5,000, mostly negroes. 

" We had good property in Dondo, worth about $5,000. A great 
deal of hard work, successful preparatory work, has been done in 
Dondo. Its school-work and machine-shop were self-supporting 
when manned, but is now in the same position as Loanda, awaiting 
good workers to man it. 

" Our Presiding Elder, E. A. Withey, of Angola District, and his 
daughter Stella, a rare linguist in Portuguese and Kimbundu, and 
of great missionary promise, were holding the fort at Dondo when 




MAP OF ANGOLA. 

I recently visited that region. Their home was at Pungo Andongo, 
eighty-nine miles distant. Stella and I walked a mile or more to 
■\tisit the graves of Sister Cooper, and of our grandest Dondo. worker, 
Mrs. Mary Myers Davenport, M. D., in the cemetery, which is 
inclosed by a high stone wall. Her last words are inscribed on her 
tombstone. They were addressed to Him who was nearest and 
dearest to her in that lone hour — to Jesus : ' I die for Thee, here 
in Africa.' She would have died for Jesus anywhere, but had con- 
secrated her all to him ' for Africa.' In about a month from that 
time our dear Stella, so ripe for heaven, but so greatly needed in 



648 MISSIONARY WORK IK AFRICA. 

Africa, was laid bj her side. So that three of our missionaiy 
heroines sleep in Jesus at Dondo. Their ashes are among the guar- 
antees of our ultimate success in giving life to millions in Africa, 
who are ' dead in trespasses and sins.' 

"From Dondo, we 'take it afoot' fifty-one miles over hills, 
mountains and vales, by the old caravan trail of the ages to Nhan- 
guepepo Mission Station. Our property there is worth about 
$6,000. It was designed to be a receiving station, in which our 
new-comers might be acclimatized, taught native languages and 
prepared for advance work. Under the superintendency of Brother 
VVithey a great preparatory work has been done at this station. It 
has, however, become specially a training school for native agency, 
under the leadership of one young man of our first party from 
America, Carl Kudolph. We already have an organized Methodist 
Episcopal Church at this station, composed of thirteen converted 
native men and boys, who are giving good proof of the genuineness 
of the change wrought in them by the Holy Spirit. From 5 to 6 
o'clock every morning they have a meeting for worship. Scripture 
reading and exposition by Carl, singing, prayers and testimony for 
Jesus by all in English, Portuguese and Kimbundu, intermingled 
with hallelujah shouts of praise to N'Zambi the God of their fathers 
and of our fathers. 

" The forenoon is devoted to manual labor by all hands, then 
school and religious exercises in the afternoon. The work of each 
day is distributed; two of our boys, called "pastors," have the 
care of about 100 head of cattle belonging to the mission. Several 
bojs are taught to yoke and work oxen in sled or plow ; several 
boys have learned to be stone-masons, and when I was there last 
were engaged in building a stone wall round tlie cattle corral. One 
boy is drained to business in the little store belonging to the mis- 
sion. One very trusty fellow is the man-of-all work about the 
house and the cook. All these varieties of work are done by our 
own converted people, and not by heathen hirelings. This station 
yields ample sustentation for all these workers. The brethren are 
making improvements continually, and paying for them out of their 
net profits. In building a chapel next summer they may need a 
little help, but probably not. 



MSSiONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 64^ 

" Dear Nellie Mead, one of ' our children ' of 1885, natural musi- 
cian and lovely Christian, died at the age of about 16 at this sta- 
tion. A tomb of rude masonry marks the sacred spot, near the 
cai'avan trail, where Nellie and baby Willie Hicks will wait till 
Jesus comes. 

''A march of thirty-eight miles easterly along the same old path 
brings us to Pungo Andongo, a great place for trade, a town of 
probably 1,200 or 1,500 population. It is wedged in between stu- 
pendous mountains, in solid blocks of conglomerate of small stones 
of basalt and flint, perpendicular for a thousand feet on all sides. 
We have a large adobe-house, including chapel and store-room, and 
nearly an aci'e of ground with fruit-bearing trees in the town, and 
a good farm of about 300 acres a mile out, worth probably alto- 
gether about $4,000. 

" That is the residence of A. B. Withey and Mrs. Withey. Their 
son Bertie, in his seventeenth year, tall and commanding, speaks 
fluently the languages of the country and has in him the making 
of a grand missionary. His two little sisters, Lottie and Flossie, 
are among the Lord's chosen ones. The developed stand-by of this 
station is Charles A. Gordon. He is a young man of marvelous 
ability, adapted to eyery variety of our work. In preaching power 
in all the languages of that region he is second to none. Withey 
and Gordon are our principal merchants, and while doing a good 
business, in the meantime, by truth, honesty and holy living and faith- 
ful testimony for Jesus in different languages are bringing the Gos- 
pel into contact with a large class of traders from the far interior, 
who could not be reached by ordinary methods. 

" Pungo Andongo Station has crossed the lines of sustentation 
and of absolute self-support, and is making money to open new 
stations in the regions beyond. We have two missionary graves at 
Pungo Andongo, one of Henry Kelley, a noble missionary appren- 
tice from the Yey Tribe of Liberia, and the other of dear Sister 
Dodson (formerly Miss Brannon, from Boston). They both ' sleep 
in Jesus,' and will rise quickly to his call in the morning. 

" An onward march of sixty-two miles brings us to Malange, a 
town of probably 2,000 population, and noted for its merchandise. 
Our people there are Samuel J. Mead, P. E., his wife Ardella, 



^50 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

refined, well educated and a fine musician, at the head of our 
school-'work. Willie Mead is head of the mechanical department ; 
his wife is especially engaged in teaching missionaries. They are 
all noble specimens of vigorous minds, holy hearts, healthy bodies 
and superior linguists and workers. Eobert Shield, a young mis- 
sionary from Ireland, who was brought up at home for a merchant, 
i-uns a small mission store at Malange, preaches in the Kimbundu, 
and has a growing circuit extending among the villages of the sur- 
rounding country. Our Kimbundu teacher in the school was 
Bertha Mead, niece of Samuel J. Mead. She was one of ' our chil- 
dren ' in 1885. She was wholly devoted to God and his work. On 
the first Sabbath of my visit to Malange, last June, she was united 
in marriage to Robert Shields. Immediately after her marriage 
she put my sermon for the occasion into Kimbundu, without hesi- 
tation, in distinct utterances, full of unction, which stirred a crowded 
audience, a number of whom were from the kingdom of Lunda, 
about 600 miles further east. In Sunday-school of the afternoon 
of that memorable day I heard Bertha put forty-one questions from 
the No. 1 Catechism of our church, and the school together 
answered the whole of them promptly ; first in English and then in 
Kimbundu. The native people of that country are known by the 
name of the Umbunda people. Kimbundu is the name of their 
language. An interesting episode occurred while the forty-one 
questions were being asked and answered. The old king, who 
livM nineteen miles distant from Malange, was present, and mani- 
fested great interest in the proceedings, and interjected a question, 
of course, in his own language, which was: 'Why did not the 
first man and his wife go right to God, and confess their sins, and 
get forgiveness?' Bertha answered him, of course, in his own 
language, to this effect : ' They were not guilty simply of a pri- 
vate offense against their Father, but a crime against the government 
of the great King of all worlds. The penalty involved was death 
and eternal banisliment to a dreadful place prepared for the devil 
and all his followers, called ' Inferno.' God had to break his own 
word, dishonor his government, and destroy the legal safeguards he 
had established to protect the rights of his true and loyal subjects, 
or execute the penalty of law on that guilty man and his wife. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRIOA. 651 

Moreover, the devil-iiature liad struck clear tlirougli that man and 
liis wife. They had become so full of lies and deceit that thej'- liad 
no desire to repent, so that all the Judge could, righteously do was 
to pass sentence on them and turn them over to the executioners of 
justice.' Tlie heathen king leaned over and listened with great 
attention, and liis countenance was like that of a man awaiting his 
sentence to be hung. Bertha went on and pictured the guilty pair 
standing at the bar of justice, each holding the saswood cup of 
death in hand, awaiting the order to drink it and die. ' Then the 
Son of God was very sorry for the man and his woman, and talked 
with his Father about them, and made a covenant with his Father 
to redeem them. He would at a day agreed on unite himself with 
a son descended from the guilty woman, and drink their cup of 
death, and provide for them his 'cup of salvation,' and would pro- 
tect God's truth, righteousness and government, and provide deliv- 
erance, purity and everlasting happiness for the guilty man and his 
wife, and for all their family — the whole race of mankind.' As 
Bertha went on to describe how Jesus did, according to his cove- 
nant, come into the world and teach all people the right way for 
them to walk in, and did die for man the most awful of all deaths 
— ' even the death of the cross' — and did arise from the dead and 
is now our law-giver in God's Court, and our doctor to heal and 
purify us, and invites all to come to him, ' and he will give them 
rest,' the old chief seemed to take it all in through open eyes, ears 
and mouth till he could no longer restrain his feelings, and broke 
out and cried and laughed immoderately, and yelled at the top of 
his voice, and clapt his hands for joy. He had never heard the 
'good news' before. I, meantime, quietly wept and prayed, and 
then thanked God. I remember how Bertha and our other dear 
missionary children used to ramble with me over the hills of 
Loanda. I was the only big playmate they had, and they used to 
wait anxiously for the shades of evening in which to have a stroll 
with their big brother ; and now to see my tall, modest Bertha with 
perfect ease breaking the bread of life to the heathen fathers, I 
have no remembrance of ever before quietly weeping so much in 
one day as I did that day. 
" Brother Samuel Mead has adopted eight native boys and girls, and 



652 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

is bringing them up in the way they sliould go. His hour for morn- 
ing family worship is from 4 to 5 o'clock. The alarm clock rouses 
them all at 4 A. M. In ififteen minutes they a^re all washed and 
dressed. The services vary and are full of life and interest: Scrip- 
ture reading and explanation, singing of a number of different 
hymns in three different languages. None are called on to pray, but 
voluntarily they all lead in turn, some in English, some in Portu- 
guese and some in Kimbundu. I kept account one morning and found 
that sixteen different ones led in prayer at that meeting. From 11 
A.M to 12 M., Sam Mead joins Willie's family in a similar service. 
No family worship in the evenings, as many of them are taken up 
by public meetings in the chapel. 

" Our church, organized at Malange at the time of my visit, con- 
tained twenty-one natives, all probationers, of course, but baptized 
and saved. The tide is rising. 

" Our property at Malange is worth probably $6,000. Samuel 
J. Mead has charge of a big farm and is making it pay. Brother 
Willie trained four native men to run two pit-saws, and in the last 
year has turned out $1,500 worth of lumber, which sells for cash at 
the saw-pits. These men are also preachers, and preach several 
times each week in the Portuguese language. In labor, money and 
building material they Iiave recently completed a new two-story 
mission-house and other mission improvements, amounting to an 
aggregate cost of $1,200, without any help from home. Men who 
are making money and attending to all their duties as missionaries 
have a legal right, under the Decalogue and Discipline, to a fair 
compensation from their net earnings ; but all the missionaries we 
have still abiding in our Angola Missions, go in with the self-sacri- 
ficing, suffering Jesus under the ' new Commandment.' They invest 
their lives with all they possess, including all the mone}^ they have 
or can make in his soul-saving work in Africa, and have no sepa- 
rate purse which they call their own. If on this line of life they 
should suffer lack, or bring the Lord in debt to them, it would in- 
deed be ' a new thing under the sun.' 

" We have graves at Malange also. Mrs. Dr. Smith, an estima- 
ble Christian lady, sleeps there. Dear Edna Mead, one of 'our 
children ' of 1885, a lovely Christian, perhaps of 12 years, sleeps 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 653 

in our own cemetery'on our mission farm. While I was there last 
June, we buried a Libolo young man — brought up and saved in 
our mission — in our cemetery; and six weeks after her marriage, 
our dear Bertha, our grand missionary Bertha, was smitten down 
and laid there to rest. 

" A great many good people in the Church on earth do not believe 
in my missions, but God means that tlie Church above all shall 
think well of us ; hence, he has not taken from us a single dwarfish, 
shabby specimen, but from the beginning has selected from the 
front ranks of the very best we had, so that we are not ashamed of 
our representative missionaries in heaven. Nearly all of our pres- 
ent force in Angola have made a marvelous achievement in the 
master}^ of the Portuguese and Kimbundu languages. Prof. PI. 
Chatelain has printed them in the form of a grammar, beside a 
primer and the Gospel by John in the Kimbundu. The rest of our 
people there, the same as himself, learned tlie vernacular by direct 
and daily contact with the natives, but Brother Chatelain's books are 
of great value to them, both in advance study and in teaching. 

" Our Angola Missions were commenced a little over four years 
ago. They have furnished many useful lessons from the school of 
experience, and demonstrated the possibilities of success in the 
three great departments of our work, educational, industrial and 
evangelical, and of early self-sustentation later, absolute self-support 
and then self-propagation — founding new missions without help 
from home. Our work has to be run mainly along the lines of 
human impossibilities, combining rare human adaptabilities with 
Divine power and special providences under the immediate admin- 
istration of the Holy Spirit. Hence, our greatest difficulty is to 
find young men and women possessing these rare adaptabilities. 
We have them now in Angola, and also on the Congo and west 
coast, but the sifting at the front required to get them is too big a 
contract for me. I can only do the best I can, and commit and 
intrust all the issues to God. He works out his will patiently and 
kindly, ^fhe people he sends home are good Christians, but on 
account of personal disabilities, or family relationship and responsi- 
bilities, find themselves disqualified for this peculiar style of work 
and not able to make self-support, and hence quietly leave for home. 



554 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

Many of such would gladly stay if we would pay tliem a salary, 
which we cannot do, though" we don't question their natural rights. 
Thus we lose numbers and gain unity and strength. 

"From Malange, a tramp of 1,000 miles northeast will bring us 
to Luluaburg, in the Bashalange Country, discovered by Dr. Pogge 
and Lieut. Wissmann, in 1883. The Governor-General of the Inde- 
pendent State of Congo, at my request, gave to Dr. Summers, one of 
our men from Malange, permission to found a station for our mission 
at Luluaburg, which he did, and built two houses on it, and was 
making good progress when he became worn out by disease and died. 
I hope soon to send a successor to dear Dr. Summers. 

"I have arranged at the land ofi&ce in Boma for the completion 
of their conveyance of title by deed to our mission property at 
Luluaburg, on my return to Boma in April next (D. V.). Those 
vast countries of the Upper Kasai and Sankuru Kivers are im- 
mensely populous. By the will of God we sliall hold our f(5oting 
and a few years hence shall (D. V.) plant a conference in that 
countr3^ 

"From Luluaburg, a week of foot traveling northwest will bring 
us toLueba, at the junction of the Lulua and Kasai Eivers. Thence, 
in a little steamer descending the Kasai River about 800 miles, 
we sweep through ' Qua mouth ' into the Congo, descending which 
seventy miles we will tie up at Kimpoko, near the northeast angle 
of Stanley Pooh We opened this station in 1886, designed as a 
way-station for our transportation to the countries of the Upper 
Kasai. The Lord is by delay preparing us the better to go up and 
possess the land in his set time. He meantime approves of our 
.good intentions. We have now stationed at Kimpoko, Bradley L. 
Burr, Dr. Harrison, Hiram Elkins and his wife Roxy. At Kim- 
poko, we made an irrigating ditch a mile long, drawing from a bold 
mountain creek an abundant supply of water to insure good crops 
at all seasons. ^ We have there about ten acres under cultivation, 
and grow in profusion all the indigenous food that we can use. To 
provide good beef in abundance and ready money, Brother Burr goes 
out for a few hours and kills a hippopotamus or two. They are in 
demand among the traders and the natives for food. Brother Burr 
recently sold three in Kimpoko for $80. Brother Burr who is our 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA^ 655 

Presiding Elder at Kimpoko, writes that station has been nearly 
self-sustaining from the beginning, but entirely so since the begin- 
ning of this year. They are building a new mission-house this dry 
season, about 15x80 feet. In this work they may require a little 
help — a few bales of cloth from home. At a low estimate, our 
property in Kimpoko is worth at least $1,000. 

" From Kimpoko we go by oars or stes,mer twenty miles to the 
lower end of Stanley Pool — Leopoldville. Thence by foot 100 
miles to South Manyanga (which is called tlie North Bank route ; 
by the south route we walk from Leopoldville 231 miles to Matadi 
or Lower Congo). From Manyanga we go by a launch of three or 
four tons capacity, propelled by oars and sails and currents, eighty- 
eight miles to Isangala. We have had a station at Isangala for over 
two years, on which we have built good native houses, but had not 
bought the site of the Government till my last visit to the land 
office at Boma. The site, containing seven and one-half acres, cost 
us nearly $80. A good garden spot. Our brethren dug a yam 
from their garden in Isangala when I was there, a few weeks ago, 
which weighed twenty-two pounds — more wholesome and delicious, 
if possible, than Irish potatoes. Our paying industry there will be 
in the transport line of business. As our Vivi Station is at the 
highest point of small steamer navigation, so Isangala is the lowest 
point of the middle passage of the Congo from Isangala, eighty- 
eight miles to Manyanga. Our site at Isangala, with improve- 
ments, is worth $300. We would refuse the offer of five times that 
amount on account of prospective value. 

" Our missionaries at Isangala are Wm. O. White and Wm. 
Rasmussen. Both have made good progress in the mastery of the 
Fiot or Congo language ; but Rasmussen is a prodigy in language. 
He interpreted for me with great fluency and force and is preaching 
in many contiguous villages. He has been out two and a half 
years, and (D. V.) will soon be an able envangelist to go forth 
among the native nations and receive from them a support. A 
journey over the mountains and vales of fifty-five miles will bring 
us to Vivi Mission Station. We bought this site — the seat of gov- 
ernment before it was settled at Boma — over two years ago, for 
We have there but twelve acres of land, but can procure 



656 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

more if needed. It is a liigli plateau and seems so dry that I did 
not think we could farm to advantage. We needed the place for a 
receiving and transport station; but to mj agreeable surprise on my 
recent visit, I find that J. C. Teter, our Preaoher-in-Charge and 
transport agent, has near the end of the dry season an acre and 
a half of green growing manioc, an orchard of young palm and 
mango trees, and plantains and yams growing in a profusion of life 
and fruitfulness. In the way of live-stock he has twenty-five goats, 
eight sheep, two head of young cattle, half a dozen muscovy-ducks 
and 100 chickens, and when short of meat he takes his gun and 
goes out and kills a deer or a buffalo. While I was with him, a few 
weeks ago, he killed two koko bucks. Tlie koko is a species of 
deer, but as big as a donkey. So in ever\^ place we settle, we find 
that God has resources of self-support of some kind waiting to be 
developed. Yivi will be self-supporting in the near future, and the 
most beautiful station on the Congo. At any rate, J. C. Teter and 
Mary Lindsay, his wife, can make it such if the Lord shall continue 
to them life and health. Probable value, $2,000. 

*' One hundred miles by steamer down the Congo to Banana 
brings us within an hour and a half by oars of our mission-station 
at Matumba. Miss Mary Kildare, a superior teacher, linguist and 
missionary, is our sole occupant of the station at Matumba. T 
bought of the Government nearly ten acres of good ground there for 
nearly $120, having previously bought the native title. We have a 
comfortable little house of galvanized iron, 22x24 feet, set on pillars 
six feet above ground. The house is divided into two rooms, 
12x12 feet, and a veranda, 12x124 feet, inclosed by a balustrading 
and a gate, and is used for a school-room. She has now a school of 
twenty scholars. She does her preacliing mostly in the village • 
tlie house is in aninclosure of nearly an acre, surrounded by a high 
fence, with strong gate, which is locked up at 9 P. M. daily. So 
Mary, the dear lady, is perfectly contented, and is doing good work 
for God. She is an Irish lady, and paid her own passage to go to 
Africa to work for nothing. I took her recently a box of Liberian 
coffee-seed, which she has in a nursery growing beautifully, and she 
has a fruit orchard coming on. 

*' Our property at Matumba is worth $1,000. Two years ago, we 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 657 

started three stations between Vivi and Isangala — Vumtomby Vivi, 
Sadi Kabauza and Matamba. We built pretty good houses at a 
total cost of $30, not counting our labor. One of the noblest young 
missionaries we had, John A. Newth, of London, sleeps all alone in 
his station at Sadi Kabanza. Dear Brother Newth ! — I was with him 
much and under a great variety of circumstances, and highly prized 
his lovable character and great versatility of practical talent. He 
loved his field of labor and would have made a success if the 
Master had not called him from labor to reward. This was in 1888, 
but belongs to this chapter of unreported history. The people I 
appointed to work Vumtomby Vivi and Matumba Stations became 
dissatisfied with their work and huddled together at Vivi with 
others of kindred spirit and worked against us. 

" ' Then they went out from us, but were not of us ; for if they 
had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us.' 

" ' This is the same old breed, 
Of which we read. 
I do not think 
They become extinct. 
But expose them to the weather, 
Give tliem time and tether, 
And they leave us altogether. 

And peace abides.' 

"Since that, Brother Reed and wife and Brother Bullikist, very 
good people, sent out by Dr. Simpson, of New York, have opened 
a station nearly midway between Vumtomby Vivi and Sadi 
Kabanza, so when we get ready to go out to found new stations we 
shall prefer, instead of resuming work at those vacated, to go into 
the more populous regions of the interior. The Congo State has a 
strip of country densely populated, 100 miles from the north bank 
of the Congo and extending fi'om Banana 250 miles to Manyanga, 
all unoccupied and open to us, except a few new stations near the 
Congo. So God is opening a vast field for us on the Lower Congo, 
as well as on the Upper Congo and Kasai. I did not set out to 
found any new stations this year, and have not, except to consent to 
the birth of Ebenezer Station on Sinou River. Our business this 
year was to find out or to put in the guarantees of self-support for 
42 



658 MISSIONAKY WORK IN AFRICA. 

each station. We have found out that most of those founded in 
the short period of the work are self-supporting in the main. In 
our new Liberian stations, beside abundance of fruit and vegetables 
for food, our principal or most reliable resource in marketable value 
is coffee. So I provided, before leaving Liberia last April, that 
every station having men, who canutihze oxen and plow, should be 
furnished with a plow and a yoke of cattle and that every occupied 
station should be supplied with as many coffee scions as they can 
plant and cultivate up to 1,000 plants for each station and provided 
each station with a bushel of coffee-seed to be planted in nursery, 
from which to enlarge each coffee orchard as fast as the ground can 
be cleared and the coffee scions set out up to 5,000 or 6,000 trees. 
Coffee means money, and it is only a question of industry, patience 
and time. It requires about five years to make a coffee orchard 
productive, but with a little attention it will yield a plentiful annual 
crop — two crops in Liberia — for fifty years without resetting. We 
ought to give all the stations a good start in cattle, (say) a dozen 
head for each one. God is manifestly with us along the lines of 
our work, and success is certain, and the glory will be wholly his. 
" The teaching force of all the facts in the case, as we now see 
them, leads us clearly to the conclusion that we need our steamer 
on the Lower Congo much more than on the Upper. So, the Lord 
permitting, we will put her together at the base of the hill on which 
Vi vi Mission is located, during the next dry season. She will carry 
goods from tlie side of ocean steamers at Banana 100 miles up to 
her berth, in the mouth of a little creek in which she will be con- 
structed, the higliest point of steamer navigation. This will save 
us exorbitant rates of freight up the river and land our goods where 
we want them, and give other missions a chance to reduce their 
heavy leakage of the same sort. The price for carrying to Stanley 
Pool is twice as large now as two years ago. We can't pay such 
prices and found the stations in the Upper Kasai. That we feel (D. 
V.) bound to do; but with our steamer on the Lower Congo and a 
steel boat of our own, of three or four tons, to be worked by oars 
and sails on tlie middle passage, to carry freights from Isangala to 
Manyanga, will give us the inside track of the freight business to 
those upper countries, and cut down our expenses m'ore than a half 



MISSION Ally WOfeK IN AFRICA. 



659 



of the present rate, and do work for other missions as well. Except 
in leadership and superintendenoy, all this heavy work will be done 
by natives, whom we wish to employ and train to habits of industry 
— one of the auxiliaries of our mission work. 

" The steamers on the Upper Congo water-ways have multiplied 
from four or five to a dozen in the past three years, so that we can 




STEAM WAGONS FOR HAULING AT VIVI. 

get passage for the few missionaries we want to pot in to hold our 
Kasai pre-emption claim till we can work up from our lease, and by 
and by send up a small steamer of our own for our enlarged Kasai 
work. I am on my way now to make final arrangements witli the 
builder of our steamer to put her up and lauTJch her at the earhest 
practicable moment, and will, the Lord permitting, be back to 



QQO MISSIONARY WORE IN" AFRICA. 

Liberia in December. I will ask Richard Grant to furnisb a state- 
ment of the total expenditures. 

" In regard to appropriations, I remark : (1) That if the Com- 
mittee wish to enlarge the appropriation to the African (Liberia) 
Conference, I make no objection, but I ask at least for the continu- 
ance of the usual amount of $2,500, sent altogether as it was last 
year, and have the distribution at Conference for the whole year. 

" (2) If the Committee are pleased to order $500 subject to my 
call, all right. I did not draw it last year, because I had not time 
to use it for the purpose I had in mind. 

"(3) If the Committee will appropriate $10,000 or $5,000 for the 
establishment of self-supporting schools for the principal countries 
of Liberian population, for the education alike of the Liberian and 
the heathen children, I will administer it as carefully as possible 
and report progress. It would take five or six years to grow 
marketable values adequate to self-support, but quantities of food 
can be produced from the first or second year. — October 4, 1889." 

Writing in June 1889, Bishop Taylor speaks as follows concern- 
ing his Angola Missions : 

MARCH FROM DONDO TO NHANGUEPEPO, 

" JSThanguepepo, Monday, June 3, 1889. 

"I left Dondo last Thursday morning. Brother Withey walked 
with me about a mile. Four carriers — who brought cargoes from 
Nhanguepepo, arriving in Dondo on Tuesday, and taking a day for 
rest — were ready to start on their return trip on Thursday. I 
employed two of them, one to carry my bed and the other my 
food, and half a cargo for Brother Withey. We spent the first night 
at Mutamba, thirteen miles out, stopping about eight miles out for 
lunch, and four hours of rest. 

" Four years ago, after waiting four or five days in Dondo trying 
in vain to get carriers, we depended on half-a-dozen Kabindas, 
whom we hired in Loanda, on good recommendations, as a stand- 
by in case we should fail. We were repeatedly told by men of 
long experience in Angola, that 'it would be impossible for us, as 
strangers, especially as we would neither drink nor sell, nor give 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 661 

rum, gin nor wine, to get any carriers for tlie interior.' 'The 
traders, witli their long and widely extended experience, facilities 
and free rations of grog, can't get more than half the carriers 
required at this time.' ' One gentleman of mj acquaintance,' said, 
' I had 5,000 bags of coffee at Kazengo, thirty -six miles from 
Dondo, and could not put it into the market for want of carriers.' 

" So, a part of our pioneer party, viz : myself, Willie Mead, W. 
P, Dodson, Joseph Wilks, Henry Kelley, the Yey boy from Liberia, 
determined to make a start on Friday night (about June 1, 1885,) 
even if we should have to do our own carrying, for the Kabindas 
whom he had hired refused to carry for us ; and they had a lot of 
their own luggage, twice as much as regular carriers take with 
them. 

" I learned from an old trader, who had thirty years of observa- 
tion along our contemplated line of work in Angola, that Nhan- 
guepepo was the best site for a mission between Dondo and Pungo 
Andongo. So we aimed to reach this first and best place. About 
9 o'clock, on that night, we succeeded in getting six Kabindas to 
shoulder each a load of our luggage and food for the trip, leaving 
one Kabindas with Dr. Summers and C. M. McLean, in care of a 
large amount of our stuff at Dondo, stored in our tents, inside of a 
stone wall enclosure, said to have been a slave pen in the dark 
days of old. I and my little party of missionaries each took a load 
of stuff, and struggled up the mountain range four miles to Pambos, 
arriving about midnight. We spread our bed on the ground and 
got a little sleep. Before sunrise I had carried wood and made a 
fire, and bad on the tea-kettle. The Kabindas looked grimly on, 
but declined to help with the camp work. Breakfast over, we 
made a move for our march, but the K.'s refused to pick up their 
loads. All my kind talk, and Brother M.'s scolding, failed to move 
them, so we 'were stuck in the mud.' We got the men through 
the English house in Loanda, and about 9 P. M. I saw Mr. N., the 
head of the English house, coming in his ' tipoia,' carried by men 
from his farm at Kazengo. So I went a little way from our camp, 
and met him, and explained to him the situation. 

"He said: 'The trouble is the Kabindas are not carriers. They 
are sailors and porters and gentlemen's servants. They were repre- 



662 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

sented to you as good for any service to whicli you might want to 
put them, but they have not been trained to work of this sort.' 

"I replied: ' Well, Mr. N., if you can prevail on the fellows to 
carry till we can reach an interior village we can pick up all the 
carriers we need.' 

"'Yes; I'll try.' He. had a palaver with the men, and they 
aoreed to carry till we could find natives who woidd do it. Then 
we cleared the camp and marched about four miles, and stopped at 
a small hamlet for our lulich, and there we hired half-a-dozen men 
to carry the loads of the K.'s to Nhanguepepo, and we transferred 
our knapsack to the K.'s. 

"The price quoted in Dondo for carriers to Nhangue was 'sixt}'-- 
four makutas' ($1.92) per man. We offered that, but could not 
get a man. The price asked by these country fellows was but 
'twenty-five makutas' (seventy-five cents), confirming the theory I 
had advanced, ' If we can get to the country villages inland, we 
can get all the carriers we may require.' So with our new team 
we went on about five miles and camped at Mutamba, and rested 
on the Sabbath. Many villagers called to see the show, the sight 
of white men, and exhibited great interest in us. We had our 
worship and a good day of rest. On Monday morning the K.'s 
'refused to carry unless we would hire another carrier, which we 
did, and soon found that they overloaded the carriers by tying 
their luggage to our cargoes. We could not speak their language, 
and they knew but little of ours, so it was of no avail to try to rea- 
son with them about their oppressions ; but soon after I reached 
Nhanguepepo, I settled with them, and sent them back to the sea 
where they belonged. 

" On my trip last week I had no trouble with carriers. I started 
fromMutamba at 6 A. M., walked twelve miles to Kasoki, took lunch 
and rested till 2.30 P. M.; marched seven miles further to Ndanji 
a Menia on the divide of a range of mountains, and camped without 
a tent, just where we pitched our tent four years ago, and I was 
reminded of the trouble we then had with our carriers. The villagers 
we had hired complained of the bad treatment they had received 
from the Kabindas, besides overloading them with their luggage, 
and refused, to go any further. I quietly offered to give them extra 



MISSIONARY WOftK IN AFRICA. 663 

pay, and thus induced them to proceed with their big load to 
Nhanguepeppo. 

"I Lad a refreshing sleep at Ndanji a Menia last Friday night, 
look lunch on Saturday at Endumba, and reached Nhangue — nine- 
teen miles — at 5 P. M., and was joyously received by our dear 
Brother Eudolph, 

" I have tramped the fifty-one miles between this and Dondo, 
back and forth many times, but never with less fatigue than on my 
trip last week. I don't purpose to give a 'history of all those jour- 
neys through the mountains, but simply note a few points of contrast 
between my first trip, and the one of last week. We arrived in 
the midst of drought and 'famine' four years ago. We came 
through fi'om Dondo dry-shod, but last Friday I doffed my boots 
and waded the pools and streams seven times, and on Saturday five 
times, and I found it to be pleasant and healthful to ray feet. 

" Till railroads shall be built through this country, the best mode 
of traveling, and the most healthful, is to walk, and 'wade.' As for 
speed in a journey of a few hundi-ed miles, a man on foot will out- 
travel a bull, or even a good horse. Persons who travel in a 
'tipoia,' amid the rattle of sleigh bells, and the shouts of their 
carriers, are not in a position to receive my statement, but I base it, 
not on a theory, but on facts from the field of action. 

" When we were here four years ago, we lived intents near the 
Caravansary for about three months. We had been invited by the 
Governor-General, Sr. Amaral, to settle on Government land where- 
ever we chose, and the Government would make us a grant of any 
amount required up to 2,400 acres. Having explored the Nlian- 
guepepo region pretty thoroughly, we concluded that the Lord 
would have us open amission here. Our families and a number of 
our young men were waiting — in Loanda at a heavy expense^ — for 
us to open fields for them ; and the dry season was passing away, 
so we had to proceed as expeditiously as possible. 

"I opened a mortar bed for making adobes (sun-dried brick) 
preparatory to the erection of a mission house near the Caravansary, 
where crowds of carriers, many of whom from a distance of five or 
six hundred miles east of us, camped every night, flaving mnde 
inquiry I believed the site I had selected was Government land, but 



664 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 



was 



notified by the " Commandante," before I had proceeded with 
my adobe-making, that all the land about the Caravansary was 
private property. He was very kind to us, but wanted to sell us 
the house in which he lived, a roomy, substantial building, with 
adjoining roofless walls of solid masonry of much larger extent. I 
saw on examination that the property would be suitable for our 
purposes of residence for our large families, and for a receiving and 
training station for new re(;ruits from home in coming time, being a 
high, breezy, healthful region ; but we had no money. However, 
firmly believing that the God of Abraham would lead us, and pro- 
vide for us, I wrote to our people in Loanda to come on as quickly 
as they could. Owing to the continued illness of a large proportion 
of them, and the difficulty and delay in getting steamer passage up 
the Coanza on account of the drought and low state of the river, our 
people came in groups in July and August. I was notified at the 
time of their transit that our money in Loanda was all used up. As 
strangers, we could not ask for ' credit,' and as servants of God, 
doing business solely for Him, and not for ourselves, I did not think 
it necessary, nor feel at liberty to try to put His credit on the 
market, so I worked and waited. 

" My people could not travel inland without money to pay their 
carriers, and we had no place in which to shelter them, even if they 
could get in. Our cloth was all of one kind — white cotton, which 
became popular and marketable months later, but at that time was 
declared to be entirely unsuitable for the market, and hence could 
not be passed off at any price. Money was the thing required, and 
without it our people in transit could neither travel beyond Dondo, 
nor stop and pay expenses. I did not doubt that I was working in 
the order of God's providence, hence could not and did not doubt 
that He would lead us, and provide for these demands on us, out- 
side of our abundant home supplies which He had already pro- 
vided. The fact is, I brought into the country, in money, only the 
small sum of about $1,200, and $1,000 of that had been handed to 
me by dear Brother Critchlow to meet ' emergencies ' in Loanda. 
Heavy duties, house-rent for forty persons with high rates for 
wood, water, etc., soon swallowed that amount. But just in our 



Missionary work in africa. 665 

extremity, Mr, J. T., a Church of England man in the City of Lon- 
don, gave us £250 — over $1,200. 

" Tlie Lord thus tided us over that bar. So in our extremity of 
need, as before described, the God of ' the Church of England ' as 
well as of our own, through His servant J. T. of London, gave us 
£250 more. With that we bought the Nhanguepepo property of 
the Commandante, and settled our people here, also at Pungo 
Andongo, and Malange. 

" I proposed tliat our Nhangue Station should bear the name of 
our London brother, but when I spoke to him about it, he replied, 
' No, Bishop Taylor, no ! that is an honor I do not deserve. I live 
at home in comfort. Call it after somebody who has suffered and 
done something for God among the heathen.' 

" All the members of the families, and young men appointed to 
Nhanguepepo four years ago, are still at the front making a record 
for God and heaven, save Nellie andEdna Mead, who have gone to rep- 
resent us in the home country of our King. Brother Carl Eudolph, 
however, is the only one who remains at Nhangue, and is at pres- 
ent in sole charge of the station, and is breaking in native workers, 
and is likely to make this a training station of native, rather than 
an American agency. If such should turn out to be in the line of 
God's wisdom, and gracious leading, all the better. These are 
acclimatized, know the languages, and the life of the people, and 
have many advantages over foreign agency. The foreign mission- 
ary is sent by the Holy Spirit ' to prepare the way of the Lord,' but 
the sooner he can train and trust the native-born men and women 
whom God shall call to be heralds and witnesses of the truth, the 
better. 

" The station buildings that were in good repair when we took 
possession, remain so ; some portions not entirely furnished with 
ant-proof rafters, need repairs. Many of the walled rooms have 
been roofed and utilized. 

" A walled room we have, 18x40 feet, would answer for a chapel 
and school-room. We hope to have it covered and fitted up this 
dry season. We are also building this season a new stone wall 
around our corral, and must have a shed for milking the cows. 

" A new house, 18x40 feet, of adobe bricks, has been put up near 



^Q^ MISSIONARY WORK IN AI^RlCA, 

our rmin building, and a farm house of adobe brick, 20x40 feet, a 
mile distant, at the mission farm. 

" A great deal of material work has thus been done in the four 
years. I provided for putting in a herd of cattle here before T left, 
nearly four years ago. The herd increased and went up to a total 
of 144 head, including calves. To protect them fi'om thieves and 
from wolves they have to be carefully guarded by two boys by day 
and secured within heavy stone walls by night. One night, about 
two years ago, the herd got out of the ' corral' and went to their 
grazing ground, and a pack of wolves killed and partly devoured 
one of the cows. Later, a couple of wolves managed to get hold 
of a calf that seemed to have laid near the gate. Some natives 
heard their barking and raised an alarm, which frightened the 
wolves away. Brothers Withey and Rudolph went out with a light, 
and found the calf outside the gate, and one of its legs broken. It 
appeared to have been dragged through an opening in the gate, 
caused by a broken bar, and thus got its leg broken. It was mid- 
night, but Brother Rudolph at once slaughtered and dressed the calf 
for food. Meantime he preached to the crowd of natives thus drawn 
together about the devil-wolves which were in pursuit of them, and 
said their only refuge is in the fold of Jesus ; that they should not 
go outside, nor lie down to sleep too near the gate. 

" The crowding together of so large a herd of cattle proved to be 
unwholesome for them, especially in the wet season, when they 
could not keep the corral clean. Many of them became afflicted with 
an itchy, festering skin disease, though otherwise healthy and fat. 
Such were separated from the main herd to prevent possible con- 
tagion, and were gradually slaughtered and used to meet the de- 
mand for beef, fresh or dried; others proved to be 'lean kine,' which 
greatly ran down in weight during the dry season, when the grass 
was short; some milk cows were poor in the quantity and quality 
of their milk; others would not yield to kind treatment; all these 
varieties, noted as unprofitable stock to keep, were sold or slaugh- 
tered ; so that now of 'the survival of the fittest' we have left a herd 
of eighty-four head, including calves; beside selected seed for a 
herd at our Pungo Andongo Mission, which now numbers twenty 
head, old and young. 



MIssIo^rAEY woUK m ArmcA. 667 

" Brothers Witbey and Gordon were both merchants for years at 
home; hence very proficient in that line, but not so well adapted 
to farming or mechanics ; so the Lord is giving them success in es- 
tablishing a commercial business, both at Nhanguepepo, and at 
Pungo Andongo. It was contemplated from the start that when 
such men should be put down by the Lord in a good place, and 
shall so be led by His Spirit and Providence, that trading posts 
should constitute one branch of our school industries. These give 
ample support now to the two stations named, but are still assisted 
from home in taxes, repairs and new additions to church proper- 
ties. 

"The foundation industry, however, is farming, fruit, coffee- 
growing, etc., (1) because of its intrinsic value, present and future. 
(2) That we may thus train boys and girls for industrial pursuits, 
by which, when grown, they may secure good homes of their own 
and form Christian communities as a basis of self-supporting 
churcbes and schools. 

"The soil of Nhangue is abundant, rich and ready for the plow 
but thus far, owing to the great attention given to building, to the 
stock, and to merchandizing, and the departure of so many who ran 
well for a season, our farming interest lias suffered ; but Brother Eu- 
dolph will give the farming and industrial school-boys and girls to 
help and to be helped, a fair trial, as soon as we. supply him 
with an assistant, and, by the blessing of God, he will, I am sure, 
make a success which will demonstrate grand possibilities on that 
line. This is essential, even if the stores should far exceed abso- 
lute self-support, which they will do if kept solely in charge of such 
men as we have named ; but all the boj^s we train can't be mer- 
chants. The school work commenced with promise nearly four years 
ago, has not made decided progress, for the same reasons named in 
regard to farming, but good results are manifest from the educational 
work, especially in some of the boys trained by our good brother, Wm. 
P. Dodson, who give evidence of their genuine conversion to God. 
In spite of all discouragements, which, among ourselves, have not 
been small nor few, God is at the front and will lead all who abide 
there with Him to early and glorious successes on all the lines of 
our movement, especially in the salvation of the heathen around 



^68 MISSIOICARY WORit iTsr africa. 

us. I am so assured of tliis that I am praising Him now lor tlie 
coming work of salvation among the heathen. Glory to God! 
Glory to God ! Wm. Taylor." 

NHANGUEPEPO. 

"Arrived in ISThanguepepo by a walk of fifty-one miles from 
Dondo, on Saturday, June 1, 1889. At present we have but one 
missionary on this station, Brother Carl Rudolph, but he is doing the 
work of two or three by breaking in the native boys. He has a 
self-supporting store of varieties, a large herd of cattle, is building 
a stone wall for enlarged corral for the cattle, teaching and preach- 
ing daily, and preparing to put in a large crop of corn, beans, 
manioc, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, etc. 

"This was designed for a receiving and training station for our 
newly arriving recruits from America, but instead it has become a 
training station for native boys who are acclimatized, who know 
the language of the country and the life of the people, and have 
many points of adaptability which a foreigner must spend years to 
acquire, and meantime is likely to get sick- — home sick, and skip 
out. Yet native agency can't be trained without competent men of 
God to train them. God has developed such from our first force 
whom we settled in Angola four years ago, who will do a wonder- 
ful and widely extended work, even if no more should come. If we 
can get more from home, who, like these, will stick, and do and die 
for Jesus in Africa, well ; but otherwise, Angola, already self-sup- 
porting, except some help in repairing and enlarging our mission 
properties, will be worked by our present force of Americans and 
the natives themselves. We have the nucleus of a Methodist 
Episcopal Church in JSThanguepepo, now consisting of half-a-dozen 
saved boys, and others are seeking. 

"On Sabbath, the 2d inst., T was late in rising from bed, just off 
a journey; indeed, I wished, at any rate, to spend part of the day in 
Sabbatic rest in that way. But, I was going to say, as I lay in bed, 
a bhnd man, whom I met here four years ago, came to see me. He 
is a native of Dondo, and learned there to read and write in Portu- 
guese, and speaks that language as well as his own Kimbundu, but 



MISSIOJSTARY WORK IN AFEICA. 669 

for years he has been blind, and lives alone in a hut not far from 
our house. His name is Esessah. He expressed great pleasure in 
meeting me again, and Brother Kudolph gave him a seat by my bed- 
side, and sat down near him. After the compliments of the occa- 
sion I said to myself : ' This is my chance for Sunday morning 
preaching, which has been the habit of my life for the last forty- 
seven years. If the Holy Spirit will use me this morning we can 
get this poor man saved. He has groped in the dark a long time; 
to walk in the light for the remaining time of his pilgrimage, and 
then leap into the joyous brightness of eternal day, will be a blessed 
gain for this poor man.' So I said : ' Brother Ruldolph, I want to 
preach to this man, and have you put it in plain Portuguese or Kim- 
bundu.' Brother Carl is perfect in love to God and man, and his whole 
soul and life are devoted to such work, and he is well up in those 
languages. So I gave him my Gospel Short Gut to the mind, 
conscience and heart of the heathen. The Spiritof God put Divine 
electric fire into it, which broke us down with weeping again and 
again. At the close of the discourse, the three of us went on our 
knees. I was led to pray that the Divine Spirit would make his 
repentance so deep and expressive, and his conversion to God so 
clear and distinctive, as to leave no ground for doubt in his mind, 
nor ours, and which would give point and force to his testimony 
to his heathen neighbors. So I and Carl led in prayer, then the 
blind heathen broke out in audible prayer, and wept, prayed and 
wept, till finally he submitted to treatment and received the Lord 
Jesus, the Great Physician, and was straightway pardoned and 
healed, and gave a clear testimony to the facts in his case. 

" We did not call t6 see him on Monday. I thought it was well 
to leave him alone with God for a season, but on Tuesday, yester- 
day. Brother Carl and I went to his hut, and he received us joyfully. 
He is not at all a noisy man, but courteous, unobtrusive and very 
sensible, and in low, distinct articulation, he is a fluent talker. We 
had a long teaching talk with him, and heard his most clear and 
distinct testimony to the saving power of God in his head and 
lieait. I led in vocal prayer, Carl followed and then Esessah prayed 
intelligently and earnestly. As we were leaving, Carl and he 
embraced each other and wept, and held each other and wept on 



570 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

for some time : meantime, I was waiting in the path, and tearfully 
thanking God for such a sight in the' midst of heathendom. Glory 
to God! The big rain drops are falhng on us. A thunder-gust of 
glory will sweep through these mountains, soon followed by the 
regular ' former and latter rains ' in this season Glory to God 1 
My eyes shall not dim mu<3h with age till I shall see these things. 
Let all the people who have been praying for us, praise God for the 
glory to be revealed. Wm. Taylor." 

FROM NHANGUEPEPO TO PUNGO ANDONGO. 

" Thursday, June 6, 1889.— I left Nhangue at 6.30 this morning, 
with my two carriers, whom I seldom see on the path, being usu- 
ally ahead of them. Two miles out I called to see the Assistant 
Commandante. He and the Commandante called to see me the 
other day, and of course I returned their call. A Commandante, 
appointed by the Portuguese Provincial Government, has charge of 
a detachment of soldiers, and is also a magistrate of a certain dis- 
trict of the Province. Some of them are Portuguese, The others, 
probably the larger proportion, are Africans, who have had some 
advantages of education. They have been courteous and kind to 
me and to my missionaries almost invariably, and we reciprocate 
cordially. 

" Three miles on my way I called to pay my respects to Sr. 
Jacintho, a Portuguese trader, whom we used to call 'the honey man,' 
because he occnsionally, when we were strangers in a strange land, 
presented us with a bottle of honey to sweeten us up a bit. We 
bought of him some of our best cattle in starting to form our 
herd. 

" In the forenoon I walked fourteen miles to Sangue. On my 
first trip over this path, to settle Joseph Wilks in Pungo Andongo, 
we spent a night at the house of the Commandante at Sangue. 

"I had been overworked at Nhangue, and was not in good con- 
dition for Avalking that day, and, on reaching Sangue, soon found a 
corduroy bedstead in a private room, and laid me down to rest. I 
heard Brother Wilks say to our host, " Bispo doente, muitodoente" 
—Bishop sick, very sick. I said to myself: " If my kind Father 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 671 

will give me a refreslnng night's rest across these rough irregular 
poles, we will see before to-morrow night who will be the delicate 
brother." 

" In due time our host sent me a basin of delicious native soup, 
which refreshed me very much, and though I spent much of the 
night in turning over, I slept well in the intervals, and was up with 
the day-dawn and ready for a march of twenty-four miles. We 
waded through long reaches of sand in the path, which made wear- 
isome walking for us. Wilks was good for a long pull, but he had 
no more to say about " Bisbo doente," as the walk that day put 
him up for all he could do to keep up, and to hold out till we 
reached Pungo Andongo, a little before sunset. We were kindly 
received and entertained at the trading ' factory ' of Sanza Laurie 
&Co. 

" Marcus Zagury, a member of this firm, had visited us at 
Nhangue a few days before, and gave us full information and 
encouragement in regard to Pungo Andongo, as the place for plant- 
ing a mission, and tendered us the hospitality of their house. 
The evening of our arrival had been set for an entertainment — 
a big dinner — for the Government officials and traders of the town 
at this house ; so we made somewhat the acquaintance of those 
gentlemen, also of a Catholic priest, who was an East Indian. 
All spoke encouraging words to us, but of course did not engage 
to paddle our canoe for us. Next day we rented from Sr. Zag- 
ury, at a cheap rate, a pretty good house for a school and for 
residence of the mission family, and I left Brother Wilks in 
charge and returned to Nhangue. 

" These are some of the remembrances .that crowd on me to- 
day, as I lay down on the leaves for noon rest and lunch at 
Sangue. In the afternoon of to-day 1 walked nine miles further 
to ' Queongwa ' (Kaongwa), not a town, but a camping-ground for 
carriers and travelers, and a house for upper-class natives, with 
some villages contiguous and a running stream of water the 3^ear 
round, which is of great utility in tliis country. Brother Withy, 
our Superintendent, has bought a sight here for planting' a mis- 
sion school for the towns of this vicinity. 

" A resident here, who has always shown kindness to my mis- 



672 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

sionaries, Sr. Candanga, met me in the path and gave me a welcome 
to his house of ' wattle and daub.' It is 60x18 feet, divides into 
two large end rooms and a central hall. 

"One of these seemed to be reserved for strangers, furnished 
with a table, two or three chairs, and a European double bedstead 
with mattress and spread, which he put at my disposal. I had a 
good portable bed which I preferred to any other, but to honor 
his hospitality I spread my bedding on his bedstead and enjoyed 
a night of balmy sleep. 

" I had walked twenty-three miles during the day, waded the 
waters eight times, and verified the truth — the ' rest of a laboring 
man is sweet.' 

" On Friday, June 7th, I was up at peep 'o day, rolled up my 
bedding, took my lunch in my hand, and was on the path long 
before the sunshine struck the tops of the mountains, and walked 
to Pungo, about fourteen miles distant, by 11 A. M. 

"My second tramp over this path was in company with Sister 
Wilks and Agnes, in August, 1889, on their way to join Brother 
Wilks at Pungo. Such was the immense avoirdupois of Sister W. 
that at Dondo we spent a week in trying to get carriers to take her 
thence to Nhangue. All our men travel on foot, but the ladies are 
carried by a couple of strong men — two also as alternates — in a 
hammock suspended from a long pole. We could find no carriers 
for her at Nhangue, so she walked fourteen miles to Sangue. On the 
way that day, we met Brother Wilks coming to meet wife and 
daughter. Agnes was carried and took a fever; the mother walk- 
ing, and perspiring freely and sluicing the sewerage of her system, 
was in no danger of fever. When we reached Sangue, I hired a- 
native to get four strong men to carry her next day to Pungo. He 
succeeded, but it was 8 A. M. before we could get them on to the 
path. We stopped at Queongwa for lunch. At 2 P.M., when we were 
ready and anxious to proceed on our journey, we found our carriers 
had just hung on the pot for boiling their breakfast. It was Sat- 
urday, and fourteen weary miles between us and Pongo, so Brother 
Wilks ordered them to their burdens : ' No time now for cooking. 
You should have done that an hour ago, and we can't wait any 
longer. We must be off now,' The carriers replied : ' We can't 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 673 

go any further to-daj ; we will camp right here, and rest till to- 
morrow.' 

" I waited till their temper abated, and went to them, and said : 
' You have had a heavy load, boys, and I know you must be very 
tired and hungry ; so, cook away, and eat a good breakfast, and 
then come on. I and this lady whom you have engaged to c;irry 
through to Pungo Andongo to-day, will walk on till you overtake 
us.' Then without waiting for a reply, we took the path, and in 
about an hour afterward they overtook us and shouldered the 
' mulker grande ' — woman large — and struggled on. We reached 
the mission house about 10 P. M., when the poor fellows were 
relieved of a heavy load from their shoulders, and I from my mind. 

" On this day, June 7, 1889, when about a mile short of our 
mission house in Pungo, I was met by Bertie Withey, a wholly 
consecrated lad of sixteen and one half years. He was a boy of 
twelve when he, with his parents and three sisters younger than 
himself, enlisted for this work. These children, like their parents, 
walk humbly before God on the line of supreme loyalty and love. 
They are well up in the use of the Portuguese language, and in the 
Kimbundu. The native people here bear the name of 'Umbunda' 
plural, Mubunda singular. Kimbundu with them means language. 
So with them it would be tautology to say Kimbundu language. 

"Our missionary occupants here at present are Chas. W. Gordon, 
Sister Withey, Bertie, Lottie and Flossie ; the eldest sister, Stella, 
being with her father at Dondo. Sister Withey is quite unwell 
just now. She has passed through the fiery ordeal of bilious fever 
in this country a number of times, but lives in the light and love 
of holiness, and carries no anxious care of any sort a bit longer than 
the casting of ' all her cares on Jesus who careth for her,' Her hus- 
band and she came to this work under a conscious call from God, 
and consecrated themselves and their children to it for life. One 
of the stipulations was that, if either should be struck down by the 
hand of Death, the other should remain in the work and train the 
children to stick to it to the end of their lives. 

"Now, while I write I hear Lottie and Flossie quietly conversing 
with each other in the Kimbundu, seemingly oblivious of the 
English language. 
43 



674 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

" Brother Gordon is one of tlie forty who came with me four years 
and four months ago. He is slender but symmetrical in his build, 
blue eyes, pleasant countenance, gentle and courteous, firmly adher- 
ing to the principles of truth and righteousness. He was rather 
delicate in health at first, but has grown strong and healthy by all 
sorts of hard work in the radius of our mission industries. He has 
a clear head, is a good school-teacher, a good wayside preacher of 
the Gospel to a crowd, or to one poor native, or to any dignitary of 
the Provincial Government, and walks in love, perfect love to God, 
and is in profound sympathy with men. Brother Withey and he, 
from years of experience in Massachusettes, are ourtrained merchants, 
"With the surplus of their earnings, in that line during the past year, 
above self-support of this station, they have bought and paid for the 
new mission property, before mentioned, at Queongwa, and a mission 
farm of probably three hundred acres of good land, bounded on one 
side by an ever-running stream of water, with many valuable fruit 
trees and a substantial adobe house, 55x18 feet, divided into three 
rooms. They are this dry season putting on a new roof, and will 
put tlie whole premises under good repair. This is the industrial 
school farm of the Pungo Andongo mission, and is sixty yards short 
of a mile west of it. 

"In competent hands, suitably located, a store, like the one here, 

constitutes an important branch of our industries. Conducted, as it 

is, on strict principles of truth and honesty, it sheds light into the 

commercial sphere of this country, and brings our missionary traders 

to personal contact with native carriers and merchants from a 

Mus east and south, covering the countries of theLundas, Kiokos, 

'undas, Libolas and still others, 500 or 600 miles distant from 
.uis place. 

"Tlie traders are of different European nationalities, and, in the 
main, are smooth and gentlemanly in their bearing toward their 
neiglibors, and we always get on pleasantly with them ; but they 
are free to say our 'principles are entirely impracticable in this 
country and can't succeed.' 

"The popular method of business here is : On the arrival of a 
caravan, laden with rubber, beeswax, ivory, etc., (1) to serve its 
traders and carriers with free rations of rum ; (2) free rations of 




iiliiifiSjiil^p 



576 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

food. With tliat they usually pass the first night in a large, well- 
covered shed built for their accomodation. Camp-fires, cooking, 
eating and drinking is the order in every direction. After the feast- 
ing, comes the dancing, with clapping of hands, and singing and 
shouting at the top of their stentorian voices. This is kept up 
through most of the night. (3) From the traders further, a free 
distribution of cheap fancy goods, dressing up the head men of the 
caravan in broadcloth coats and pants, highly-colored silk sashes 
and umbrellas, and in a display of these, with music, they march 
through the town and back to the camp. 

'' Then (4) comes the weighing of the rubber, wax, ivory, etc., 
and payment in cloth of various kinds and colors, flint-lock guns, 
powder, beads, knives and fancy goods in variety, and rum in huge 
bottles encased in willow wicker-work. In the ' Mohamba' of the 
carriers — a kind of long basket — five of these demijohns are placed, 
weighing from seventy to eighty pounds, to be carried often 500 or 
600 miles. 

"(5) 'The dispatch,' just before the departure of the caravan, 
which consists of throwing out into the crowd, caps, hats and toys 
in variety for a grab game of the carriers. I once saw two fellows 
grab a cap, who pulled and hauled and quarreled till a third fellow 
ran up with his knife and cut the cap in two, and stopt the strife. 

" Our Christian traders provide some accommodations for shelter 
and comfort for native carriers and traders. Those who come for 
the first time call for rum. 

" ' We don't sell rum ; don't use, nor keep it in the store.' Some 
fellows here, the other day, disputed Brother Gordon's statement, 
saying, ' Don't I see it there,' pointing to some cans of kerosene. 

" ' Well, do you want to try some of that ? ' 

" ' Yes; that is what we want.' 

" So he drew some and passed it to them, saying, ' Now, you had 
better put it to your nose first.' One or two of them smelled it,, 
and passed it back with a look of surprise and horror. 

" ' Well, we want some tobacco.' 

We don't use tobacco ; don't sell it ; don't keep it to sell' 

Do you want to buy rubber? ' 

Yes, I am ready to buy your rubber,' 



a I 



u t 



MISSIONARY WORK m AFRICA, 677 

" ' What will you give us in exchange for our rubber ? ' 

" ' I will give you ;noney, if you like ; or give you cloth, rice, 
fish, sugar, soap, anything you want, except rum, tobacco, beads 
and trinkets — such things as can do you no good. We sell nothing 
but what will be useful to you.' 

" ' How much you give us tor our rubber ? " 

" ' When I examine to see its quality I will show you whatever 
you want, and how much I will give you for each ' arroba ' (thirty- 
two pounds). We give you no ' matebeesh ' — gifts — like other 
traders, and can afford to give you a good price for your rubber. If 
you, then, think that you can do better elsewhere, you can take 
your rubber away to the best market you can find. We want you 
to do the best you can for yourselves ; remembe'r, the men who give 
you things so freely, cannot afford to do it out of their own 
pockets ; they must therefore take it out of you in their prices of 
purchase or sale.' 

"Some leave us quietly, but many remain, and see, and confess 
to a fair deal. Then comes a free friendly talk about their country, 
and their people, and a Gospel talk about ' Nzambi ' — God. 

" The people who thus trade with us go away in every direction, 
telling their friends they have become acquainted with ' another 
people.'' 

"Thus our holy brethren are making more than a missionary 
self-support, and business increasing daily, and not only have their 
regular Sabbath services in the Kimbundu, but are talking six daj^s 
a week beside; from morning till night they are talking in the 
Kimbundu of Jesus and Salvation to people who listen attentively, 
and repeat with great accuracy and earnestness any new thing that 
comes into their ears. 

" All this talk, which I have indicated through the English lan- 
guage, transpired in the Kimbundu, so that our missionary traders 
are daily learning the vernacular of the country much more rapidly 
and acurately than they could if confined to their libraries, especi- 
ally as there was but a single fragmentary grammar, till one of our 
missionaries, H^li Chatelain, learned from the people who speak accu- 
rately, and has since printed a grammar and the Gospel by John; 
but as these are just from the press, our people have become familiar 



578 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

with the Kimbundu bj direct and daily contact with the people 
without the aid of books. 

" On Saturda}^ June 8th, Brother Gordon and Bertie slept alter- 
nately night after night at the farm-house, and in the morning see 
that the hired men get early to worlc, and look after the cattle and 
send them out to pasture, and then return in time for breakfast. 

" I went to the farm-house early this morning and found Brother 
Gordon reading and explaining Scripture truth to the hired men in 
their own Kimbundu. When one grasped a new thought, he 
repeated it to the rest, with a glowing face. 

" Our cattle herd here is not large, but growing, and of choice 
stock. They require daily attention. Any fresh wounds on any 
of them will soon mortify if not properly attended to. I saw 
Brother Gordon lasso a couple of young bullocks this morning, 
almost as dextrously as I used to see the Spaniards do it in Cali- 
fornia. It took him about a minute to lasso one, throw him, tie 
his leos, and put 'a bar across his neck, so that the animal was 
entirely helpless. The object was, daily to clean and dress a wound 
till fully healed, 

" A wild plant grows plentifully in this country, called by the 
natives 'Lukange,' a decoction of which applied hot — not to .scald 
— appears to be more effective than carbolic acid. First, a cleans- 
ing of the wound with soap and warm water; second, an applica- 
tion of the lukange by means of a syringe. Then, to prevent ' fly- ■ 
blow ' and its consequences, a preparation of salt and baked tobacco, 
pulverized, is applied. The nicotine of tobacco, boiled out, is the 
great remedy used by Australian sheep growers for killing a 
bad breed of lice, which would otherwise destroy their flocks. 
Tobacco is certainly a very poisonous, destructive weed, and death 
to vermin. 

"On Sabbath, 9th, Brother Gordon had a teaching and preaching 
meeting in the chapel at 10 A. M., then I preached a short dis- 
course, and he interpreted into the Kimbundu. We had first and 
last about thirty native hearers. Some of them were greatly inter- 
terested, and repeated to the rest the new thought that had just 
struck him. 

" At the close, a soldier, who was among the most attentive of 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 679 

the hearers, said, 'I want to turn to God, and receive Jesus and be 
saved.' 

" Brother Gordon questioned him about giving up all his sins, 
and let Jesus t^ke them all away. 

" He said, ' Yes, I'll give up everything that is wrong, and let 
Jesus save me.' 

" Then Brother Gordon asked if he had more than one wife ? 

'"Yes, I have two ; but I am willing to give up- either the one 
or the other; but I want you to tell me which one I should give 
up ? ' Then, just as we were hoping to help him to come to Jesus, 
he had to respond to a call to duty as a soldier, and left, and we 
have not seen him since. Brother Gordon knows him, and will 
seek opportunity to help him. 

" Our mission house here, of solid adobe walls, 3 feet thick, is 
about 100 feet front by 20 wide, for 82 feet, and the remaining 18 
feet forms an L extension back about 50 feet, which is the chapel ; 
the 82 feet being divided into four apartments, one of which is the 
room for trade. Back of the house is an abundant supply of 
oranges, mangoes in their season, and some other varieties, the 
whole covering about half an acre of ground ; 'the best site in 
town ' for all our purposes. Our committee bought it, and paid 
for it over three years ago. 

*' On Monday, 10th, I again visited Brother Gordon at the farm this 
morning, and visited on the premises, near a large tree, the grave of 
dear Sister Dodson — Miss Brannon. They had been united in mar- 
riage but about six months. She had on her wedding garment 
when called by the Master, and went quickly into' the royal guest 
chamber of the King. Her short and sure way from Boston to 
heaven was through Angola in Africa. 

" To-day Brother Gordon and I took breakfast with Sr. Coimbra — 
" Costa & Coimbra," the largest business firm in Pungo Andongo. We 
took breakfast with Sr. Coimbra, seven miles this side of Malange, 
nearly four years ago. He is a kind, social man of the world, 

"On Tuesday, 11th, preparing for an early start to-morrow morn- 
ing for Malange. Will go alone, oP course, except the occasional 
sight of my two carriers, yet in 'blessed fellowship divine,' never 
alone nor lonely. Wm. Taylor." 



680 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

FROM PUN GO ANDONGO TO MALANGE. 

" On Wednesday, 7 A. M., June 12th, I started from Pungo. My 
two carriers, engaged yesterday, had not reported at 7 A. M , so I 
started on my journey, leaving orders for them to join me at Kori- 
ma, ten miles out, 

" I waited at Korima nearly an hour when they arrived, so we 
lunched and rested till 1.30 P. M. I walked that P. M. fifteen 
miles, and lodged at Kalunda Quartel. Quartel is not a hotel, 
but nevertheless a lodging place for travelers who carry their own 
bed and provisions. It is a rude barracks, for a small detachment 
of soldiers, under a Commandante, who lives in his own residence 
contiguous. I meant to stop at the house of the Commandante, 
who atteuded our preaching at Pungo last Sabbath, and dined with 
us, and who expressed a strong desire to have us establish a mis- 
sion at Kalunda. It was, however, an hour after dark when I 
arrived at the Quartel, and the soldiers said it was a long distance 
to the house of the Commandante, so I waited about an hour for 
my carriers, and then took my cold lunch, put up my bed in a 
room without doors, and slept well. Was up and off at 6.15 in the 
morning, having rolled up my bedstead and bedding, and taken my 
breakfast in the early dawn. I walked thirteen miles, and waited 
three hours for my carriers, which put my dinner off till 3, so I walked 
but six miles that evening, and lodged in a rude construction of 
poles, with roof, but sides not covered with mortar or grass. It 
gave shelter from dew and afforded fresh outdoor air, which is 
always my preference in this country. I found several native trav- 
elers, with a camp-fire blazing when I arrived, among whom was 
a woman, husband and little girl of about 6 years. I spoke kindly 
to the naked httle thing, and the parents were delighted. After I 
retired I was entertained till I lost consciousness in sleep, by the 
singing of the little six-year-old, who never heard a Christian hymn 
or tune in her hfe. She sang the words and tunes of about half-a- 
dozen native songs, and when she seemed to run out of words she 
sang on, ' La, la, la, la.' I tliought of the countless millions of little 
children in Africa, all heirs of 'the free gift which is unto the jus- 
tification of life,' and as susceptible of being ' trained up in the 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 681 

way they should go,' as the children of England or America ; but, 
I said, with tears, Where are the trainers ? O thou Creator and Ee- 
deemer of mankind, how long, how long? 

"Friday, lith, I walked thirteen miles, lunched and rested a 
couple of hours, and six miles farther landed me in Malange. Just 
as I crossed the Malange River, I met Brothers Samuel J. and Wil- 
liam H. Mead, and Robert Shields, accompanied by Mrs. Ardella and 
Miss Bertha Mead, mounted on bull backs, with portable organ, 
base viol, cojnet, etc., on their way to Kolamosheeta, where I had 
lunched that day, to hold religious services. 

" The people of that town are hungry for the truth of God. I 
begged them not to stop for me, but to go on to their appointment, 
but they replied that the people would not assemble till their 
arrival was announced, and said they ' were going out at this time, 
thinking they might meet me there.' So they returned and I 
accompanied them to the mission-house in Malange. Malange is 
sixty-two miles distant from Pungo Andongo. 

"The fifty-one miles of travel from Dondo to ISThanguepepo is 
mainly through a region of rugged mountains and precipitous cliffs 
of solid rock, opening out into the long and widening grassy pla- 
teaus of Nhanguepepo. The thirty-eight miles from Nhangue to 
Pungo extend through and mainly across a series of ridges and 
hollows sparsely covered with scrubby timber. The soil not so 
rich, hence grass not so heavy and grass fires not so hot; therefore 
there is half a chance for trees to grow, with no chance at all from 
Dondo to Nhangue, except some very sappy varieties of but little 
value. 

"From Pungo on for twenty miles the ridges are much broader 
and not so high as those described ; there is more sand, less grass 
and heavier, but still scrub-timber. Then for eight or ten miles 
we cross low, beautifully rounded grassy ridges, with a little 
streams of water near the surface, about half a mile apart between 
the ridges. Then, for most of the way to Malange we cross ridges 
less fertile, much higher, with an ascent of from two to four miles. 
The whole line of march bears southeasterly. All appears to be a 
good grazing country, with many herds of cattle, "but not a tithe of 
the number required to keep the grass down, and thus keep up 



682 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

good short grass pasturage the year round, and preclude the great 
' prairie fires,' which destroy the young timber and prevent the 
growth of forests. For many miles around Malange, there is a fair 
supply of good hard-wood timber in variety. 

" Sam Mead, Ardella his wife, and Bertha his niece, and I came 
together to Malange, nearly four years ago. Sr. J. Preitas was 
then in charge of the long established business house of Sanza 
Laurie & Co., in Malange, and gave us the temporary use of a house 
for our missionaries. After a day or two here, he informed me 
that Sanza Laurie & Co. intended soon to close out their business 
in Malange, and that I had better buy their house and town lot on 
which it stood, containing an acre of land and some banana trees. 
The house was an extension of house added to house joined into 
solid walls, about one-third of wattle and earth, and the rest of 
adobe brick. The last one added, forty feet in length, was new, 
consisting simply of walls with no roof. The frontage of the whole 
was about 165 feet,'by a width of 18 feet. I inquired: 'What is 
the price of the whole property, house and land? ' 

" He replied: ' You can have it for two hundred milreis, $214.' 

"I said: 'I'll give that amount,' and the bargain was closed in 
about as few words as I have written. It is worth four times that 
amount now. The plates, girders and timbers are nearly all of ant- 
proof, and almost everlasting hard-wood, most of which are as solid 
to-day apparently as when new. One of them has a fire-proof cov- 
ering by means of a double roof. On the lower is a heavy layer of 
cement of adobe clay, precluding. rats, rain and fire. Over this is a 
thatch roof of long native grass. On the sunny side it has kept dry 
and sound, but on the north side our brethren have put on new 
thatch, cleaned and whitewashed the rooms, and finished the new 
forty.foot room, and fitted it up for a school-room and chapel, which 
is the seventh room in the buildins'. 

" In the few days I was here, four years ago, Brother Sam and I 
selected and stept off a mission-farm adjoining our mission-house. 
He and Brother Gordon fenced, cleared and planted several acres in 
corn, beans, manioc, sweet potatoes, etc., and everything grew 
beautifully, but the brethren were kept indoors by illness for a^few 
days, and just what an old Portuguese settler predicted came to 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 683 

pass, their fencing was all stolen for firewood, and the cattle and 
hogs devoured every green thing from the premises. Bad outlook 
for self-support. It was in the midst of a ' three years' drought,' 
which precluded the growth of supplies at our other Angola sta- 
tions, but our farm was not far from the ' laguna,' a lake, a few 
hundred yards wide, and perhaps a^mile long, occasioned by the 
spread of the Malange Eiver over a plain, which gave moisture to 
the soil for a considerable distance from its shore. We did not 
seek to get nearer to the lake for fear of malaria, being warned of 
that peril by old residents. 

" A fair share of the supplies for the first year of food, tools, and 
a little mone}', came to Malange for six missionaries, including 
Bertha, in her thirteenth year, with fresh supplies for the second 
year, and seven new missionaries to help to use them up, but all 
that was but to keep the wolf away, and afford means for the devel- 
opment of self-support. Sister Ardella's health was so far gone, 
for months, that it was believed her life depended on her having 
apartments in a second story„ But there were none in town, so a 
two-story house must be built. In the changes that were one way 
and another rapidly occurring, for the most part by attacks of 
home-sickness, that carried them off and clear out of the country, 
most of the work devolved on Brother Sam Mead, till two years ago 
his cousin, Brother Willie H. Mead and family moved hither from 
Nliangue, preceded by Brother Eobert Shields, sent out by our 
Committee from Ireland. These have all stuck to the work hereto 
which GocT called them, except that Edna Mead, a ripe Christian 
of about 12 years of age, at the call of God went up to join her sis- 
ter, Nellie, in their heavenly home. 

" The results of this unpromising attempt at self-support I will 
sketch in my next letter. Wm. Taylor," 

MISSIONARY SELF-SUPPORT AT MALANGE. 

" Malange Station received, at the beginning, its proportion of 
cloth, provisions, tools and a little money to tide a small band of 
workers — Sara Mead, Ardella his wife, and Bertha Mead, of 13, his 



684 MISSlONAEY WOEK IN AFRICA, 

niece, and two young men — through the first year, which proved to 
be the second of a ' three years' drought and famine.' 

" So a partial supply was sent for the ensuing year to prevent 
suffering from want. Meantime, the ' tent-making ' by the mis- 
sionaries, to ' make ends meet," would have sufficed in a pinch, but 
the subsidy was salutary and safe, for they were not of the sort to 
be surfeited and suffocated even by an excess of supplies if they had 
had them, taking real pleasure in ' scratching' for themselves. Two 
years were required for apprenticeship, experimenting in many 
things, with everything to learn essential to self-support. 

" About the beginning of the third year, after various changes by 
the coming and going of new workers, the coming of Willie H, 
Mead, with his family from Nhanguepepo, to join his cousin, Sam — 
about the beginning of the third year, marked the period when self- 
support really began to abound, 

" Minnie Mead, Willie's wife, turned in $40 by her sewing 
machine. Heli Cliatelain an equal sum by teaching languages to 
some traders. Eobert Shields, from his private purse, put in $22. 
Willie has put in $80 per year from the rents of some property he 
has in Vermont, his old home, and, within a few months after arri- 
val, put in $200 from pit-sawing and selling lumber. Most of these 
sums, with about $100 worth of goods sent as a present from Ire- 
land to Brother Shields, were used to stock a little store for a small 
commercial business, as one branch of industry which was felt to be 
specially needful. 

" Most of the business of the labor market of Angola is trans- 
acted through copper coin currency. It is so difficult to procure 
and keep a supply of it on hand that to purchase it, even with gold, 
ten per cent, premium has to be paid. The patrons of a variety 
shop bring in for the purchase of things they require a good supply 
of the copper coin, 

" Robert Shields, having served a regular apprenticeship to the 
grocery business in Ireland, with an additional experience in it of 
a year and a half, was appointed to take charge of this industry, 
and work it in connection with his studies, and special evangelizing 
among the villagers adjacent to Malange. 

" The farm selected at the beginning was found to be too near the 



MISSIOISTARY WORK IN AFRICA. 685 

town, and the whole work of ' a season ' on it having been 
destroyed in a night, there was no ground of hope for anything bet- 
ter by a repetition of the experiment of fencing and farming tliere. 
So Sam Mead, in a state of semi -desperation, mounted one of his 
bulls and managed to struggle through grass as high as his head 
to explore the lake shore, along which he found a neglected farm, 
on which were growing many valuable fruit trees ; he also discov- 
ered that the farm, save its lake-side boundary, was enclosed by a 
strong growing hedge, and contained a body of about 300 acres of 
black clay and loam of the most productive quality. He immedi- 
ately sought for the owner — the heir to the man deceased, who had 
spent so much time, toil and money on it, and he bought and paid 
for it with money belonging to Ardella, his wife. He then went to 
work with a will, under a new inspiration of hope, assisted for a 
time by Brothers Eudolph and Gordon, and produced abundantly a 
variety of tropical and temperate zone products for food. 

""The mechanical industries were under the special charge of 
Wm. H. Mead. His sons — Johnnie and Sammy, the former about 
12, and the latter nearly 11 — out of school-hours are valuable help- 
ers in each department, alternating where needed most. 

" "Willie's two pit-saws, in the two years he has been in Malange, 
have turned out $1,500 worth of planks and scantling, about half of 
which he sold, and used up the other half on improvements of mis- 
sion property. To haul the logs from the forest, Sam had the oxen 
and Willie bought a huge Portuguese cart, with wheels of hard- 
wood, about four feet in diameter, and a hard-wood frame to match, 
all very strong and durable. 

" The outlay of the earnings of these workers, for the past two 
years, over and "above self-supporting subsistence, may be seen in 
the following exhibit : 

" (1) The roofing and fitting up for school and chapel purposes 
the unfinished hall, 18x40 feet, belonging to the block of buildings 
first bought for the mission. The girders, plates, rafters and collar 
beams are all of enduring hard- wood. The roof is double ; the nether 
is covered with fire-proof clay ; the upper with thatch grass. The 
shutters and doors, and frames for both, are of sawn hard- wood. Its 
slab benches, without backs, give quite a ' rise ' to people always 



586 MISSIONARY WOEK IN AFRICA. 

accustomed to sit on the ground. The cost of these improve- 
ments in material, labor and money is estimated to have been 

$300. 

"(2) The farm-house, 15x20 feet; corn crib, about 6x11 feet, set 
on posts, capt with inverted tin-pans, to prevent the rats from get- 
ting up ; and two out-houses, about 10x10 feet, and a corral of heavy 
logs for the cattle, cost a total of $100. 

° (3) Willie Mead's saw-pits, a shed, workshop and appliances, 
located in the mission yard, cost about $100. 

" (4) A new mission-house on the same lot on which stands the 
old one. It is 24x30 feet, two stories high. The lower story is 
built of dressed stone, the upper of adobe brick, solid walls, below 
and above, three and one-half feet thick, with a second-story, 
veranda front and rear of the building. Double fire-proof roof— as 
the chapel roof before described. Doors, window shutters, and 
frames of both, together with the verandas and upper-story floors, 
are all sawn hard-wood. The lower floor and walks outside are of 
flag-stones. It is the only two-story house in Malange, and believed 
to be the only house in Angola furnished with a chimney and fire- 
place, which adds greatly to its comfort in the really cold weather 
of Malange at this season of the year. The upper story is used by 
Sara and Ardella, and about half a dozen of their adopted native 
children. The lower story has also sleeping accommodations, but 
is the dining-room for Sam, Ardella, Eobert Shields and Bertha, 
and the school 'internoes.' The house is not large, but most 
symmetrical and substantial, and is prophetic of progress, and, bears 
from the vernanda facing the street, a tall flag-staff, from which 
floats the flag of our home country — the stars and stripes. 

"The brethren estimate the cost of this building, in materials, 
money and labor, at $800. To buy all the materials, and depend 
on hiring workmen, it could not be done for that amount. It will 
be observed that the aggregate outlay for these improvements 
amounts to $1,800, not a dollar of which was furnished by our 
Ti-ansit and Building Fund Society ; the brethren perferring to do it 
themselves than to ask for or receive aid from home. Thev are now 
engaged in building a wall round our Malange Mission premises 
1,000 feet long. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 687 

" (5) The farm Brother Sam bought, with its field of sugar cane, so 
thickly set as to defy anything short of an elephant a passage 
through it; its fruit orchard; its live stock of twenty herd of 
cattle, including three yoke of oxen ; and eleven breeding sows and 
male, and chickens, is worth in the market one thousand dollars. 

" As soon as Sam began to inquire for the owner, others began to 
compete with him as bidders for it, so, to avoid the peril of delay, 
he bought it at the earliest possible moment, and had it deeded to 
himself, and has held it in good faith for the mission. During my 
recent visit to Malange, I offered to refund Ardella's money with 
interest. 

"Sam and Ardella laid the subject before the Lord, and returned 
answer, that, having given themselves and all they have to God for 
his self-supporting missions in Africa, they refuse a refund ; but 
will immediately deed the farm and all the appurtenances there- 
unto belonging to the Transit and Building Fund Society, to be held 
.in trust for the self-supporting missions of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. I put the matter into the hands of Brother C. W.Gordon, 
our legal attorney, and the conveyance will be made, no doubt, 
before this MS. can be printed. 

" The building of the new house has absorbed a large proportion 
of the stock in trade of their little store. They were quite disin- 
clined to allow me to help them stock it up a bit, but I prevailed 
on them to accept the small amount of $214. 

"As Willie Mead is a noted mechanical genius, on the short-Cut- 
cheap-line, adapted to a country like this, and as Malange has 
greatly the advantage of any of ourother Angola missions in timber 
supply, and the farthest inland, he should have an outfit of tools and 
machinery for a few branches of industry well adapted to that 
locality. This need has been in part provided for. Our Committee 
has sent a new supply of farming implements and carpenter's tools 
for Malange, soon to arrive. 

"I have, on my return trip to the sea, ordered them a turning 
lathe from Nhangue ; also a farmer's outfit, the gift of Thomas 
Walker & Sons, of England ; and have sent from Dondo a black- 
smith's anvil, vice, tongs, etc. What Malange yet needs is a small 
steam-engine, of four or five horse-power, with ' arbor ' and belting, 



688 MISSIONAKY WORK IN AFRICA. 

and other appliances, and a thousand feet of small piping for pump- 
ing water, to run by steam, (1) their sugar cane crushing mill ; (2) 
their corn meal grinding mill ; (3) their turning lathe; (4) a small 
circular saw of eighteen or twenty inches diameter, also a small 
circular cross-cut saw, tlie saw to be sent from home with the 
engine, belting, and water-piping. We don't want for Malange a 
saw mill, big engine, or anything costly or too heavy for easy trans- 
port on the heads of natives 150 miles from Dondo to Malange. 
Willie Mead did not ask for these things, but needs them for mission 
industrial teaching, in connection with his powerful preaching in 
the Portuguese language. He was proposing to sell his little 
property in Vermont, to use the money derivable from the sale of 
his homestead, to buy the engine, etc., as above, for Malange Mission, 
but I protest against that. Such men as the Meads are just the 
men we can afford to help with certainty of broad self-supporting 
missionary independency and wide-spread efficiency, without danger 
of dependency. Wm. Taylor." 

RETURN FROM MALANGE TO DONDO. 

"I was planning to leave Malange, Monday, 24th of June, but 
'Magady was dying,' so I yielded to the request of our brethren 
and sisters, and postponed till Wednesday, the 26th. Magady was 
a 'Labola boy,' who, as a little fellow, gave himself to Sam and 
Arda, nearly four years ago. He was very black, but pronounced 
by some as ' the most beautiful boy they ever saw.' The people on 
the south side of the Coanza, from its mouth up for 250 miles, are 
called Kasamas; thence on for 200 or 300 miles, a similar people 
are called the Libolos. Neither will allow the Portuguese people 
to travel through their country. 

"Magady's story was that his parents were dead, and that his 
uncle treated him so badly he ran away from his country, and 
became cook for the Malange mission. He was taught to know, to 
fear and to love the Lord, and to sing our hymns. For about two 
years he was a consistent Christian. Then, through the intrigues 
of an influential, designing, bad man, he was enticed into bad com- 
pany, and forsook the Lord. Then he was visited by a disease of 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 689 

his head. He would be walking along, and fall as suddenly as if 
shot by a Eeraington rifle, and lie some time in a state of insensi- 
bility, bat that was as nothing compared with severe and sudden 
pains in his head that caused him to scream aloud at all hours, day 
and night. None but himself attempted to diagnose his case. He 
said 'Gan N'Zambi' sent it on him for his wicked departure from 
Him, and would destroy his body, but had forgiven him, and washed 
his spirit, and that he was sure he would soon go to live with God, 
and was anxiously waiting for the call of the King. About 2 P. 
M. Monday, June 24:th, he died. Willie Mead made him a hard- 
wood coffin, and lined and covered it with white cotton cloth, and 
he was laid in a grave six feet deep in our own mission burial- 
ground, where dear Edna Mead sleeps. I conducted the funeral 
service, about thirty persons being present — a ' brand snatched from 
the burning,' our first Angola representative in heaven. 

"During my sojourn in Malange, this trip, ieleptin my own bed, 
as usual, set up in the second-story veranda of our new house, over- 
looking the street. The nights were very cold and the winds very 
high, but I rested sweetly, and improved the tone of my health. 
For two years I had endured an unmitigated high pressure of care 
and anxiety, on account of the combinations against the success of 
my work, within and without, front and rear, threatening the life 
of my missions. But for the great kindness and care of my gracious 
God and Father it would have killed me. Viewing the blessed 
harmony and efficiency of our workers from Loanda, and on for 390 
miles to Malange, I set up my Ebenezer, and wept, wept, and praised 
God softly, softly. Then I rested my weary spirit on the bosom of 
Jesus, and resigned my way-worn body to sleep. There, in the 
breezes of the high veranda, days and nights together, I slept and 
slept, and waked, only to say 'thank God,' and slept again. Then 
I got up feeling as fresh as the morning. I bade adieu to my 
kindred dear in Malange, and left at a quarter to eight Wednesday 
morning, June 26th, and Friday P. M. reached Pungo Andongo, and 
had a blessed two days' sojourn with Brother Gordon, Sisters 
Withey, Bertha, Lottie and Flossie — holy, lovely people. Brother 
Gordon is a master in the Portuguese and Kimbundu. We preached 
an hour Sunday A. M. I knew his rendering into Kimbundu was 
44 



re 

awa 

can 



690 MISSIONAEY WOEK IN AFRICA. 

clear and forcible, by its manifest effect on the hearers. It was their 
gular chapel service for each Sabbath. The soldier who was 
^ kened on my way out has been called away on duty, so that we 
„.,.- 1 report progress in his case, but half-a-dozen men, or more, 
came forward on this occasion as seekers of pardon, and prayed 
audibly, but did not appear to enter into life. 
** " I left for Nhangue, Monday morning, July 1st. Brother Gor- 
don accompanied me fourteen miles to Queongwa, to show me a 
mission farm Brother Withey recently bought there, of probably 
250 acres. We went through it that afternoon, from end to end. 
It is bounded on the west by a bold running stream, and on the 
north by the caravan path, stretching across a ridge of fertile soil 
over 200 rods wide. The former owner was with us, and wanted 
to sell us the lower end of the same ridge, extending from this path 
about 200 rods to the hollow, northward, where it is bounded by 
another little river, till it flows into the one that bounds the whole 
tract on the west side, and has another shallow stream flowing 
through the addition near its eastern boundary. So, as this new 
survey, of about 200 acres, was offered to us at a very small figure, 
we bought it. The former purchase from self-supporting earnings, 
has already been conveyed to the T. and B. F. Soc. for the M. E. 
Church, and this will be, or is by this time. 

Brother Gordon is a symmetrical, lovely character, and efficient 
in everything he takes hold of. When Brother Withey and he 
took hold of our little store in Pungo a little over a year ago, its 
assets were $200, now over $1,000, and the preaching done across 
the counter in all holy conversation and honest dealing, is a power 
for God in that centre of far-reaching influence. 

"I reached Nhangue on Tuesday P. M., and rested Wednesday 
till 4 P. M. We had a preaching and baptismal service. Brother 
Eudolph has had several young natives converted during my 
absence. Here, as at Malange, many candidates for baptism we 
had to put off for better preparation. We baptized none of 
responsible years who were not well recommended by missionaries 
who had been training them for many months, and who were 
assured, from their profession and lives, of real conversion to God, 
and declined to baptize any children whose parents were not pre- 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 691 

pared publicly to pledge themselves to teach or have their children 
taught their baptismal relation and obligations to God, and to trust 
Him for His baptismal pledges to them. Tliose rejected were dis- 
appointed. However, on Wednesday P. M., I baptized twenty-one 
little children, and several converted lads, and five new probation- 
ers were added to our native church, making thirteen natives at 
Nhanguepepo, and twenty-one at Malange. 

" On Thursday morning. Brother Karl accompanied me as far as 
Nellie Mead's grave, under a shade tree, about two rods from the 
caravan trail. A construction of solid masonry, about 5x8 feet, 
and two feet high, covers her consecrated bones, all given to God 
before she left America, and laid at the front, according to hei 
covenant, to live and die for Jesus in Africa, She was a natural 
musician, and has gone to take lessons where ' the new song ' is 
attuned to the 'harpers' of the melody of heaven. She was one 
of our children, of the same age, but less stature, of Bertha Mead. 
Dear little Willie Hicks sleeps beside her, and will, with her, wake 
up at the first call, early in the morning. 

"I bade dear Karl adieu, and walked that day twenty-six miles, 
and camped at Kasoki, and next day, July 5th, walked twenty-five 
miles, and put up with dear Brother Withey and Stella, at our 
mission-house at Dondo. I thus completed my walk of 300 miles 
with less weariness than the same route cost me nearly four years 
ago. Glory to God, my patient loving Father in heaven and here 
in the mountains and vales in Africa ! Wm. Taylor." 

Writing in September, 1889, Bishop Taylor says of his Congo 
missions : 

" Vivi is about 100 miles from the ocean, on the north side of 
the Congo Eiver. 

" Old Vivi, founded by Mr. Stanley, is reached by climbing a steep 
ascent of half a mile or more from the steamboat landing and Gov- 
ernment warehouses at the river-side. It is now entirely deserted. 
Proceeding by the same road along the slope of the ridge on which 
old Vivi stands, and thence across a deep glen and up another steep 
hill, we reach ' Vivi Top,' the site of the first capital of the State. 
It is located on a broad and beautiful plateau, commanding a full 
view of several miles of the river .with its whirlpools and sweeping 



692 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 



currents. The villages of Matadi, Tuiidua, the site of Underbill 
Mission of the English Baptists, and several trading stations, all 
dressed in white paint and lime, stand out and grace the scene on 
tlie south bank of the great river. 

" The Government imported and built several large houses of 
wood and iron at Yivi. One of the houses, I was informed, cost 




MISSION HOUSE AT VIVI. 

the Governor-General $17,000. We could have bought it for $9,000, 
but had to decline the generous offer for lack of means. 

"The large houses were taken down andshipt to Boma, the pres- 
ent capital, about fifty miles below Vivi, and were reconstructed on 
Boma plateau. 

" We bought the sight of the old capital, comprising about twelve 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 693 

acres of land and a few small buildings, sufficiently capacious for 
our needs for a few years, for $768. 

"The plateau being so liigli and dry, I did not ap]»ly for much 
land, considering it unsuitable for profitable cultivation. We re- 
quire the site for a receiving station for the transport of supplies 
for our contemplated industrial stations in the interior north of the 
Congo, and the great Upper Congo and Kasai countries. 

"I now perceive that under the judicious management of my 
Preacher-in-Charge, J. C. Teter, Yivi will become, in the near fu- 
ture, a self- supporting station, and the most beautiful mission prem- 
ises on either bank of the river. On my recent arrival in Yivi, 
about the 8th of August, with the dry season far advanced, I was 
delighted to find, on the high and dry soil of Vivi, a field of 
manioc, beautifully green and growing. The mango and palm 
trees on the place when we came into possession have made a re- 
markable growth during my absence, and are full of fruit; a young- 
orchard of choice varieties of tropical fruits are getting a fine start, 
and in the garden plenty of yams as large as my head. I also find 
a promising start in the production of live stock. We already have 
at Yivi eight choice African sheep; twenty-five goats, which mul- 
tiply like rabbits ; 100 chickens, and a male and a female calf. 
Brother Teter built a house for the sheep, another for the goats, 
and a corral for the calves. These are not in care of keepers or 
dogs during the day, and they return to their houses in the eve- 
nings and are shut in from the leopards. One of those danger- 
ous customers reached his paw in through a slight opening in the 
wall of the goat house, and tore a fine female goat so that it was 
necessary to kill her. The morning after my arrival I went with 
Brother Teter to see the goats come out of their fortress. As they 
came rushing through the door, I was surprised and amused to 
see three monkeys mounted on the backs of goats, as pompously 
riding out to the grazing grounds as if the flock belonged to them. 
They lodge with the goats by night, and spend most of their time 
with them through the day, and are often seen riding as erect as 
a drill sergeant of cavalry. They spend many of their leisure 
hours in picking bugs and burrs off the goats, and playing with 



g94 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

the kids. Their indescribable antics are enough to make a dog 
laugh, and to relieve a confirmed dyspeptic of the blues. 

" Brother Teter is building of stone a snake-proof chicken-house. 
A lesson of sad experience led him to build of solid masonry. Some 
months ago, Sister Teter went into the chicken-house, then in use, 
to look after a sitting hen. While stooping over the nest, which 
she thought was occupied by the hen, she felt something like a jet 
of spray come into her face, and this was quickly repeated two or 
three times, filling her eyes with the poison of a "spitting snake," 
which lay coiled in the nest. All that night she suffered, in' total 
blindness, indescribable agony of pain. By the prompt application 
of powerful remedies her life was saved, and her sight restored, but 
her health was injured by the poison. The dear woman was quite 
unwell on my recent arrival, but seemed quite restored before 
I left. 

"I have furnished a glimpse of the sunny side of Vivi, produced 
by the genius and industry of our faithful Preacher-in-Charge. Our 
Yivi Station and our cause have suffered temporarily by the disaf- 
fection and departure of those who were numbered with us ; but 
their departure has left us in peace and harmony, with the possi- 
bility and certainty of success in the work to which God has called 
us. ' They went out from us, but they were not of us ; for if they 
had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.' 
There are many not very good, and many who are very good, who 
are 'not of us' and not 'with us' in our Self-Supporting Mission 
movement. When such of either class, by mistake, get into our 
list of workers, th§ best thing for all concerned is for them to get 
out, as quietly and as quickly as possible. We are sorry for them, 
and cease not to love them and to pray for them. 

" On Wednesday afternoon, the 14th of August, accompanied by 
Lutete, a native man, employed to carry my blankets and food, I 
took the path for Isangala ; distant, 'tis said, fifty-five miles from 
Yivi. We walked twelve miles, and put up for the night at a new 
mission just being opened by Mr. and Mrs. Eeed and Mr. Bullikist, 
recently sent out as missionaries by Dr. Simpson, of New York. 

" They seem to be earnest Christians, and will, I trust, make a 
soul-saving success. They are having three native houses built, 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 695 

each about 12x18 feet, whicli will give shelter for three or four 
years. Their faithful dog shared in their tent lodgings, till one 
night, a few weeks since, a leopard or panther scented him, took 
' a fancy to him,' and carried him off. Brother Keed is expert in 
the use of a gun, and supplies his table with venison from the 
prairies. Soon after his arrival, he went out and killed a deer, and 
a native king and some of his people came and claimed and clam- 
ored for it. Eeed got their attention, and, leveling his rifle at a 
tree, he put an explosive bullet into a knot and tore it to pieces. 
He then drew his revolver, and discharged it a few times in the 
air. His argument had its effect on their minds, and they quietly 
retired, 

" At 7 o'clock next day, having disposed of a good breakfast, I 
took the trail, and walked seventeen miles, to Matamba Creek, 
by 3 P. M, I was quite disinclined to camp so early, but there 
being no available water for seven miles beyond, I made my pallet 
on the ground and turned in for the night. I usually have my 
very comfortable portable bedstead, but going only for a short stay 
at Isangala, I took but one carrier instead of two, my usual 
number. 

" Passing through Bunde Valley to-day, I saw a herd of nine or 
ten koko — a huge deer as big as a donkey, with longer legs. They 
bounded away a few rods, and at the distance of about a hundred 
yards stood and looked at us till we passed out of sight. My Win- 
chester would have brought one of them down if it had been witii 
me, instead of at Vivi. 

" Twice, later in the day, we were within easy shot of lars^e red 
deer. On my return, in the same valley, which is about eight 
miles long, stretching between mountains or high hills north and 
south of it, and abounding in game, I was within easy shot of a 
koko, which stood and looked at me without moving. We also 
heard buffalo in a jungle of grass and bushes, not thirty yards from 
us. I saw plenty of game when I traveled this path over two 
years ago, but I don't carry a gun in traveling, having enough to 
do to carry myself, and no time for curing and packing the meat, if 
taken. 

" I went out from Vivi with Brother Teter, the other day, to get 



696 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

meat for use. Our hunting-ground was about ten miles from home. 
The first day we got no meat, but saw many koko and deer. The 
second day at noon, we had nothing, and were getting into a 
position to sympathize with a hungry hunter of the olden time who 
sold his birthright for a pot of soup with no venison in it. Teter was 
becoming desperate, for he is a noted hunter, hungry for meat, and 
withal had a reputation to sustain. As soon as we got our lunch 
of all we had, he took my Winchester and set off' alone. When 
he had gone half a mile from camp, he 'stalked ' a small herd of 
koko, and shot a young buck through the neck and killed him, and 
then emptied the gun-chamber of its dozen cartridges in trying to 
bring down another buck. He shot off its right fore leg, and shot 
off the sinews of the left one, and put a bullet into its hip, but he 
would not down. Teter, having no more cartridges, left the gun 
and pursued the wounded deer and stoned him to death. . We had 
with us two Liberia boys. We camped near by for the night, and 
before the morning dawn, we had the larger buck cut into thin 
slices and cured by the fire. The younger one, about a year and a 
half old, was carried whole to Vivi, by a hired native. Our Liberia 
boys, with a good supply of fresh meat, were so refreshed in their 
minds that they sang the songs of Moody and Sankey, almost 
incessantly, for days. The deer of this section are smaller than 
the antelope and gemsbock varieties which we read of in other 
sections, and which offer such royal sport for those who go equipped 
for hunting. 

" On Fridaj^, we walked from Matamba Creek, twenty-three miles 
to Isangala. By my usual speed of three miles an hour, I made 
the distance from Vivi to Isangala, fifty-two miles instead of fifty- 
five, as per Mr. Stanley. I was, however, in fine condition for 
walking, and may have overstept iny ordinary gait. Arriving at 
Isangala, I came first to the station of the State, and by invitation 
of Mons. C. La Jeune, the Government Chief of Isangala, I stopt 
for half an hour in pleasant conversation, and then proceeded a few 
hundred yards to our Isangala Mission Station. 

"I found our faithful missionaries, Brothers White and Easmus- 
sen, in good heath, and happy in the Lord. 

"They have built a cheap but comfortable house, about 15x40 



698 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

feet, also a kitchen and warehouse for storing our stuff". Thej have 
made a garden also, which yields a goodly portion of their support. 
A single yam, dug while I was there, weighed twenty-two pounds- 
Beside vegetables, they have a large flock of chickens. These 
brethren both belong to our transport corps, but have done this 
station work beside, and have made good progress toward the mas- 
tery of the Fiot or Congo language. 

" Brother Rasmussen, though but two and a half years in this 
country, speaks the Fiot fluently, and preaches in it in the villages 
contiguous. I remained with those dear brethren from Friday 
evening till Tuesday, the 20th. We had Blessed Communion with 
the Holy Trinity and with each other. On Sabbath, I preached to 
a company of natives, and Brother Rasmussen interpreted without 
hitch or hesitation. In another year or two this dear brother, 
under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, can go forth as an apostle 
among the nations of Congo. 

" One part of my business was to advise with these brethren on 
the possible solution of our steamer problem. I had talked up all 
the points with Brother Teter, and he was so sure these brethren 
would concur in our conclusions, he thought it quite sufficient for 
me to write them, and thus save myself the labor of a rough walk 
of over a hundred miles. I said: 'Nay, brother, I will walk it, 
and get the unbiased decisions of their own judgment, and enlist 
the free good-will and effective co-operation of the brethren in the 
work before us under a new impulse which personal contact would 
communicate.' 

" Before intimating the conclusions reached at Yivi, I drew out 
the candid opinions and judgment of these brethren, and found they 
were of exactly the same mind with us. When by mistake we 
take the ' wrong road,' and travel a long distance in it, it seems a 
grievance to us to face about and trudge our weary way back to 
the ' cross-roads,' but however much it may go against the grain, 
that is the thing to do. It seems to lighten the task a little, if 
some unfortunate fellow can be branded as ' the scape-goat ' to bear 
the blame of the mistake, for we all are of kin to that dear lady we 
read about, who tried to make a scape-goat of the devil ; and to 
the unmanly man, who had the honor to be her husband, and tried 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 



699 



to make a scape-goat of his wife. But our well-intentioned mis- 
take was not a sin and we have no need of a scape-goat. 

" Well, without enumerating the sources of clearer light, and the 
new conditions and changes which have intervened in the last two 
years, our unanimous judgment is that the Lord wants our present 
steamer for the Lower Congo, — and a much lighter one for the 
Upper Congo and Kasai water-ways two or three years hence. We 
will, as soon as the Lord will help us, occupy our station at Lulua- 
burg, vacant since the death of Dr. Summers, and hold our footing 
in that vast and populous region. 




"I believe the Lord has a special providential purpose to fulfil in 
settling us on the north side of the Lower Congo. He wants us to 
occupy a densely populated, and utterly neglected region, so far as 
missionaries are concerned, belonging to the Free State of Congo, 
extending 230 miles, from Banana to Manyanga, and 100 miles 
wide. So that, while we shall, the Lord willing, carry out our plan 
of planting missions in the countries of the Upper Kasai and San- 
kuru Elvers, we will also provide for these vast regions so near us. 
Our steamer will be available for the supply of all these vast fields. 



700 MISSIONAKY WORK IN AFRICA. 

Beside all this, if our time and space will permit, we can carry for 
our neighbors any variety of freights, except intoxicating liquors. 
Our plan, from tiie beginning, was in connection with books and 
Gospel preaching, to establish industries to employ the natives, and 
prepare them for usefulness. So, if it shall please the Lord to give 
us a money-saving and a money-making transport service, direct 
from Banana to the regions before-named, it will be in perfect 
accord with our plan of missionary work for this country, and fur- 
nish us means for its more rapid extension. 

" Much of the work will be done by natives, whom we shall 
train, and our own missionaries engaged in it will not be throwing 
away either time or opportunity. Associating daily with the peo- 
ple, mastering their languages, visiting their homes, employing 
them in business, bettering their condition, exhibiting to them in 
all our words and ways the loving spirit of Christ, and unfolding to 
them the hidden treasures of Divine light and life is the kind of 
missionary work specially adapted to these nations. There is no 
personal money-making motive nor purpose in it. * We are work- 
ers together with God.' We can trust Him for board and lodging 
while in His service, and trust Him for reward when the work is 
done. 

" During my absence from Congo of over a year and a half, 
Brother Teter, in charge at Vivi, has had to stand firmly in defense of 
me, my Committee, and my cause of Self-Supporting Missions, and 
having a few sets of my books, he is continually lending them to 
the traders and State officials stationed along the river from Vivi 
to Banana. Among these was Mons. C. La Jeune, who became so 
interested in them, that at our recent meeting in Isangala, he asked 
me to allow him to translate and print some of them into the 
French language, for circulation in Belgium. He said he was soon 
gomg home for at least six months, and would in that time make 
the translations and arrangements for their sale. I had the pleasure 
of giving him. a written permission to do as he desired. 

" The officers of the Congo State, from the Governor-General 
down, are extremely polite and obliging, but the amount of Govern- 
mental tape that belongs essentially to the administration of an old 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 701 

European Government is a means of grace, especially the grace of 
patience to an American pioneer. 

"On Sunday, 25tb, T preached in the open to twenty-six seated, 
attentive English-speaking negroes from Liberia, Acra and Lagos, 
and a crowd that stood and looked on. There are many scores of 
such people employed at Boma, and their numbers are increasing. 
A great deal of missionary money has been expended in civilizing 
and Christianizing these people, especially those from the missions 
of the coast of Guinea, by the Lutheran, Church of England and 
Wesleyan Methodists. They are very anxious for a place of wor- 
ship in Boma, it being the capital of the State in which, by the will 
of God, we will plant hundreds of mission stations in the near 
future. We ought to have a mission-school and church in Boma. 
To accomplish all this next year we really lack but one thing, and 
that is the money. The cheap stations we establish in the wild 
regions of the heathen are not of the style required for Boma. A 
plain, substantial building for residence, school and preaching ser- 
vices would cost about $5,000. Wm. Taylor." 

SOUTH AFEICAN MISSION FIELDS. 

South Africa next engages our attention. Passing by its natural 
scenery, soil, productions, climate, its cities, towns and villages, 
manners and customs of its many native tribes, and the character 
of its colonists, we will confine ourselves strictly to what has been 
done for the moral and religious welfare of the inhabitants. And 
first of the Western Province of Cape Colony. 

The Dutch Eeformed church being that of the original colonists 
is the strongest religious denomination, and it is numerously repre- 
sented in most of the towns and villages throughout the country. 
Formerly it was regarded as the church of the white people alone. 
It was not till the advent of the missionaries that the Dutch church 
awoke to the necessity of doing something for the natives. Lately 
they have nobly redeemed their character and in connection with 
many of their churches a large amount of missionary work is done. 
The same was true of the Church of England. Now, with the aid 
of funds from home, they have been erecting churches and school 



702 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

buildings in the towns and villages and appointing ministers and 
teachers to labor among all classes. Lutherans, Presbyterians and 
Baptists were also represented by churches in Cape Town but they 
did nothing for the masses of the people. 

Cape Colony, in common with other parts of South Africa, is 
chiefly indebted to the missionary societies for the moral and relig- 
ious instruction of the masses. 

The Moravians had the honor of being the first in the field, the 
Kev. Geo. Schmidt having gone out to the Cape as early as 1737. 
A writer in the Missionary Review in 1889 says : 

" Foremost in the fight with ignorance and evil in South Africa 
stands the figure of George Schmidt, prepared for the hardships of 
his missionary life by six years of imprisonment for conscience' 
sake in Bohemia, during which his brother in tribulation, Melchior 
Nitschmann, died in his arms. Whence came the zeal which 
moved Schmidt to make his way alone to South Africa in 1737, 
and to dwell among his little colony of Hottentots in Bavianskloof, 
until in 1743 the persecutions of the Dutch settlers and clergy drove 
him from the country, and their intrigues prevented his return ? 
Whence came the ardent heart's desire, which led him day by day 
to a quiet spot near his German home, and there poured itself out 
in prayers for his orphaned flock far away, until, like Livingstone, 
he died on his knees pleading for Africa ? Such burning love and 
such persistent prayer are not of man,, they are of God. And 
though the answer tarried long — yes, fifty years — it came before 
this century commenced. George Schmidt was no longer on earth 
to hear the reports of the three men upon whom his mantle fell — 
how they found the spot which he had cultivated, the ruins of his 
hut yet visible, the whole valley a haunt of wild beasts; and, bet- 
ter, how they found one surviving member of that little congrega- 
tion of 47 who had long waited and hoped for the return of the 
beloved teacher. This was an aged Wind Hottentot woman, who 
welcomed them as Schmidt's brothers with " Thanks be to God," 
and unrolled from two sheep-skins her greatest treasure, a Dutcli 
New Testament which he had given her. Soon this so-called 
Bavianskloof {i.e. Baboon's Glen) was changed into " The Vale of 
Grace" (in Dutch, Genadendal), and where Schmidt's poor hut 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. , 703 

stood there is now a large settlement, with a congregation of more 
than 3,000 members. From this center the work has spread over 
Cape Colony, and beyond its borders into independent Kaffaria, 
Now its two provinces include 16 stations with their filials, where 
60 missionary agents have charge of 12,300 converts." 

The Evangelical French Missionary Society has stations at 
Wallington and Waggonmaker's Valley, but its principal field is 
in the interior. The Berlin Missionary Society are also represented 
in the Riversdale district. The Rhenish Missionary Society also 
occupies many important stations. The London Missionary Society 
began its work in 1799, and has made its influence to be felt for 
good in various parts of the country. The Wesleyan Missionary 
Society commenced its labors in 1814. They were hindered for a 
few years by the government authorities, but in the course of time 
they made great progress in building churches and mission prem- 
ises, and in organizing schools all over the Colony. 

The Eastern Province of Cape Colony is also indebted to the 
missionary societies for religious instruction. Prosperous stations 
of the Moravian, Berlin, Rhenish, French Evangelical, Presbyterian, 
London, and "Wesleyan Missionary Societies have been established 
in various places. The two societies last mentioned, however, have 
been most extensively engaged in purely missionary work. The 
London Society began in 1799 by sending out Dr. Yanderkemp 
and the Wesleyan in 1820, the Rev. William Shaw being the 
pioneer missionary. The temporal and spiritual benefits resulting 
from the labors of these two societies to the people of different 
tribes and languages in the Eastern Province of the Cape Colony 
were very marked. 

In Kaffaria most of the religious denominations and missionai'y 
societies at work in the Eastern Province of Cape Colony are at 
work here also. 

In Natal, the Church of England has been unfortunate in the 
part it has taken in the work there. As early as 1838 a missionary, 
a teacher and a doctor, were sent out by the Church Missionary 
Society. Soon afterwards others were sent to evangelize the 
natives, but war breaking out the work was entirely relinquished. 
In 1853 Natal was constituted a diocese and Dr. Colenso was con- 



'JQ4: , MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 

secrated the first bishop ; but, according to bis own confession, 
instead of converting tiie natives to Christianity, be was himself 
converted by a Zulu Kaffir, and proceeded at once to encourage 
polygamy and other heathen practices. Another bishop was 
appointed, but Dr. Colenso determined not to be superseded, and a 
scene of wrangling and litigation ensued, painful to contemplate. 
Churches have been built in several towns for the benefit of the 
settlers, but not much has been done for the religious instruction 
of the natives by the Church of England. 

The American Board of Foreign Missions sent out missionaries 
in 1834. They were men of superior learning and intelligence. 
They have labored chiefly among the natives. By their literary 
abihty and persevering efforts they have rendered good service to 
the cause of God by the part they have taken in the translation of 
the Scriptures and their remonstrances with Bishop Colenso. The 
Berlin, ^ftermannsburg, Swedish, Norwegian, London and Wesleyan 
Missionary Societies have representatives in Natal. The Dutch 
Eeformed Church and the Scotch Presbyterians have a few ministers 
and churches as have also the Free Church of Scotland and the 
Independents. 

The Eev. James Scott of Impolweni, Natal, writes to the Free 
Church Monthly in reference to an interesting work among the 
Dutch Boers, and extending to the Zulus in the northern portion of 
Natal about Greytown. Most of the Boers belong to the Dutch 
Eeformed Church, and while they have attended outwardly to 
Christian ordinances, they have heretofore cared little for the native 
population. Three years ago a religious awakening began among 
these Boers, and the genuineness of this interest was shown by 
their desire to reach the Zulus, whom they had regarded as little 
better than animals. There are now fifteen preaching places where 
the Gospel is proclaimed, and which Mr. Scott says are simply the 
farmhouses of the Boers. He speaks of seeing eighty Boers and 
three or four hundred Zulus gather together for worship. The 
Zulus come from kraals and villages, both old and young, some 
clothed, but most of them heathen in their blankets. Over one 
hundred in Greytown have been formed into a native church in con- 
nection with the Dutch church. This work is now being carried 




NATIVE WARRIOR. {T^S-) 



706 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

forward under the direction of a committee of the Dutcli farmers, 
employing three native Evangelists. One of these evangelists is the 
son of the Zulu warrior who in 1836, at the signal from Dingaan, 
the cruel tyrant, fell upon the Dutch leader Eetief and his party of 
about seventy men, murdering them all in cold blood. This father 
still lives, and is a member of the Christian church and listens 
gladly to his son as he preaches the gospel of peace. 

The Orange Free State is an independent Dutch republic. The 
whites, Dutch, English, and other Europeans greatly outnumber 
the colored persons, who are of different tribes, but chiefly half- 
castes. The religious instruction of these people is fairly provided 
for by the different agencies now at work among them. The Dutch 
Reformed church of course takes the lead, and they have erected 
places of worship, appointed ministers, and gathered congregations 
in all the towns and villages and in many of the rural districts. 
The Berlin and Wesleyan Missionary Societies are also doing a 
good work especially among the wandering tribes of Bechuanas, 
Baralongs, and Korannas. In Zululand, previous to the war in 
1879, the Propagation Society of the Church of England, and the 
Hermannsburg and Norwegian Missionary Societies, had estab- 
lished stations, and attempted the evangelization of the natives, 
but with very slender results. On the breaking out of hostilities, 
all the missionaries and teachers had to leave the country. They 
have since returned and gone to work under more favorable 
auspices. 

It is stated that a nephew of the late King Cetewayo, after six 
years in Sweden in theological and other studies has gone back to 
carry on mission work in his native land. 

No people in South Africa have benefited more by missionary 
labor than those in Basutoland. The agents of the French Evan- 
gelical Society have taken the lead in the work, having entered the 
field in 1833. They have many flourishing stations, and their ef1:brts 
have been very successful in converting the heathen and in diffus- 
ing among the people general knowledge calculated to promote 
their civilization and social elevation. The Wesleyan missionaries 
have also established important and prosperous stations. By the 
presence and influence of the missionaries, industrious habits have 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 707 

become tlie distinctive characteristics of tlie Christian Basutos. The 
commercial relations of the country have been facilitated. A great 
impulse has been given to agriculture, in so much that the general 
aspect of the country, even in those parts that have not come under 
the influence of the Gospel, has been transformed. This has been 
strongly testified to by Mr. Griffiths, the British commissioner. 

One of the most pleasing incidents in Pinto's narrative is his 
meeting with the Coillard missionary family at Luchuma, on the 
Cuando., They were French missionaries, and the family was com- 
posed of Mr. and Mrs. Coillard and a niece, Elise. At the time of 
the meeting, Mr. Coillard was on his way to King Lobossi, to 
receive his reply to a request to enter his country for missionary 
purposes — a request which, by the way, was denied. This failure 
made it necessary for Mr. Coillard to return to Bamanguato, so tlie 
family and Pinto joined resources and took up the line of march 
together. 

More than fifty years ago the land of the Basutos, whose bound- 
aries touch the colonies of the Cape and of Natal on the south and 
of the Orange Free State on the west, became the abode of numer- 
ous French Protestant missionaries. Tliey worked so faithfully 
that the native sense of savagery disappeared and the Basutos came 
to be the most civilized of the South African tribes. Now the 
Christian schools of Basuto number thousands of pupils. After a 
time the missionaries extended their field of work, but were finally 
headed off by the Boers and forced back to Pretoria. It was then 
that Frangois Coillard was placed in charge of the Leribe Mission. 
He pushed his way north amid hardships and danger, till made a 
pi-isoner by the Matebelis and dragged before their chief, Lo- 
Bengula. What the missionary and the ladies of his family suf- 
fered during the time they remained in the power of that terrible 
chief is a sad and painful story. They were at length released and 
ordered to leave the country. On reaching Shoshong, the capital 
of Bamanguato, Coillard determined to renew his efforts in another 
direction. So he struck out for the Baroze region, having first sent 
a request to King Lobossi for admission and countenance. It was 
while on this mission to the Upper Zambesi that Pinto met him and 
his family. Pinto says of him : " He and his wife had resided in 



MlSSIOiSrARY WORK IIST AFRICA. 709 

Africa for twenty years. He is warmly attached to the aborigines, 
to whose civilization he has devoted his life. He is the best and 
kindest man I ever came across. To a superior intelligence he 
unites an indomitable will and the necessary firmness to carry out 
au}^ enterprise, however difficult." 

On tlie south side of the Zambesi and north of latitude 24°, 
Africa is divided from sea to sea into three distinct races. On the 
east ai'e the Yatuas ; between are the Matebelis, or Zulus ; west- 
ward are the Bamanguatos. They are all sworn enemies. The 
king of the latter, at the time of Pinto's visit was Kliama, a 
Christian convert, educated by the English, a civilized man of 
intelligence and superior good sense. Ti'ue, he usurped the throne, 
but he treated his family with leniency, and became the idol of his 
people. Unlike every other native governor in Africa, Khama 
was unselfish. He spent Ws wealth for his people, and encouraged 
all to labor, that they might grow rich in herds and flocks. And 
they were not oidy rich-in cattle, but were fine agriculturists; fond, 
too, of out-door sports, being experts in the hunting of game, as the 
antelope, ostrich, girafi'e, elephant, etc. Though a Portuguese and 
influenced by the Latin church, Pinto gives this account of mission- 
ary work in South Central Africa : " How is it that in the midst 
of so many barbarous peoples there should be one so different from 
the others? It is due, I firmly believe, to the English mission- 
aries. If I do not hesitate to aver that the labors of many mis- 
sionaries, and especially of many African missionaries, are sterile, 
or even worse, I am just as ready to admit, from tlie evidence of 
my own senses, that others yield favorable, or apparently favorable 
results. 

"Man is but fallible, and it is easy to conceive that when far 
removed from the social influences by which he has been sur- 
rounded from his infancy, lost, so to speak, amid the ignorant peo- 
ples of Africa, and inhabiting an inhospitable clime, his mind 
should undergo a remarkable change. This must be the general 
rule, which has, of course, its exceptions. The exceptions are the 
men who rest their faith on those 'blossoms of the soul' which 
give comfort to the wrecked mariner and aid the monk to suffer 
martyrdom at the hands of those to whom he brings the blessings 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 711 

of civilization. They who possess these inestimable treasures may, 
if left to themselves, pursue their way and attain to a sublime end, 
but such are veritable exceptions. Flesh is weak, and weaker 
still is human spirit. Were it otherwise, we might dispense with 
laws and governments, and society would be organized on a different 
basis. The ' blossoms of the soul ' would suffice to govern the 
world. 

•' The passions to which man is subject will often lead the mis- 
sionary — but a man and with all a man's weakness — to pursue a 
wrong course. The strife between Catholics and Protestants in the 
African missions is an example of this. The Protestant mission- 
aries (I mean, of course, the bad ones) say to the negro. ' The 
Catholic missionary is so poor he cannot even nffbrd to buy a wife,' 
and thus seek to injure him, for it is as great a crime to be poor in 
Africa as in Europe. On the other hand the Catholics leave no 
stone unturned to throw discredit on the Protestants. From this 
sti'ife springs revolt, the real cause of mission barrenness, where so 
many beliefs are struggling for mastery, To the south of the 
tropics the country swarms with missionaries, and to the south of 
the tropics England is engaged in perpetual war with the native 
populations. It is because the evil labors of many undo the good 
labors of some. 

" Let us however, put aside the evil ones and speak only of the 
good. I have spoken of King Khama and his Bamanguato people. 
The king's work was well done, but those who made it possible 
deserve more credit. The first workman- in tliat field was Eev. 
Mr. Price, recently charged with the mission at Ujiji on Lake 
Tanganyika. The second was Rev. Mr. Mackenzie, the Kuruman 
missionary. The third was the Rev. Mr. Eburn, now among these 
people. It is with the utmost pleasure I cite these worthy names, 
and put them forward as noble examples to all workers in the fiekls 
of African civilization." 

The above named Rev. Mr. Mackenzie took charge of the Kuru- 
man mission in the Crown Colony of Bechuanaland in 1876, and 
his first work was to found and build a memorial institution to his 
predecessor, the lamented Dr. Moffat, for the education of native 
ministers. A fund of $100,000 was subscribed in England for this 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 713 

purpose and soon a substantial set of structures arose as a witness 
to Dr. Wm. Mackenzie's zeal and the profound respect in which 
Dr. Moffat was held. 

Says the Rev. A. Boegner: " Basutoland has frequently been 
saved from the destruction of its nationality by the intervention of 
the missionaries, and the natives blessed their name. The result in 
respect to education is that we have 80 elementary schools, having 
together 4,666 pupils, besides the normal school and the higher 
girls' school, with 30 or 40 pupils, and 15 industrial, biblical, and 
theological school stations, 94 out-stations, 19 missionaries, 176 
native workers, 6,029 communicants aiid 3,412 catechumens." 

In Bechuanaland many of the tribes, especially the Batlapins 
and the Baralongs, have for several yeai-s past been favored with 
the means of religious instruction by the agents of the London and 
Wesleyan Missionary Societies. It was among these people that 
the celebrated Dr. Moffat achieved his greatest success, and it was 
into their language that he succeeded in translating the Scriptures. 
And it was from a station among them that Dr. Livingstone started 
on his first adventurous journey of -discovery. Thousands of these 
people have been to a considerable extent civilized, evangelized, and 
many have been taught to read the word of God for themselves. 
The earliest attempt to carry the Gospel to the Bechuanas was 
made in 1800 by Messrs. Edwards and Kok, agents of the Dutch 
Missionary Society in Cape Town. It proved unsuccessful. They 
were succeeded by the travellers Lichenstein in 1805, and Burchell 
in 1812, and during tlie latter year by the well-known Rev. John 
Campbell, who may be regarded as the earliest pioneer missionary 
to the Bechuanas, the two agents of the Cape Town Society being 
known among the Batlapins rather as traders tlian missionaries. 
In accordance with a request' made to Mr. Campbell by the chief 
Mothibi, who said, "Send missionaries, I will be a father to them," 
the London Missionary Society appointed Messrs. Evans and Hamil- 
ton to Lallakoo, which they reached in 1816. Their hopes of a 
welcome were, however, doomed to disappointment. The Bechuanas, 
with Mothibi's, consent, reyoked the wagons of the missionaries 
and sent them away, hooting after them in genuine heathen fashion. 
Thev did not want " the teaching," fearing it would be with them 



714 MISSIONAEY WOEK IN AFRICA. 

as with the people of Griqua Town, " who " they said " once wore a 
' kaross ' but now wear-clothes ; once had two wives but now only 
one." Mr. Kobert Moffat made the next attempt to introduce the 
Gospel among these people and was more successful. We have not 
space to give even an outline of the career. of this wonderful man. 
One illustration, however, will suffice to show at once his character 
and that of the people among whom he labored so long and well. 
During a time of severe drought when the heavens were as brass 
and the earth as iron, the cattle were dying rapidly, and the 
emaciated people were living on roots and reptiles. The rain- 
makers were consulted. They attributed the cause of the drought 
to the prayers of the missionaries, and to the bell of the chapel, 
which they said frightened the clouds! The chief soon appeared 
at the missionaries' door, spear in hand, with twelve attendants, 
and ordered them to leave the countrj'', threatening violent measures 
if they refused. Mrs. Moffat stood at her cottage door with a baby 
in her arms watching the result at this crisis. Looking the chief 
straight in the face, Moffat calmly replied : " We were unwilling 
to leave you. We are now resolved to stay at our post„ As for 
your threats we pity you; for you know not what you do. But 
although we have suffered much, we do not consider that it amounts 
to persecution, and are prepared to expect it from those who know 
no better. If resolved to get rid of us you must take stronger 
measures to succeed, for our hearts are with you. You may shed 
my blood, or you may burn our dwelling; but I know you will 
not touch my wife and children. As for me, my decision is made. 
I do not leave your country." Then throwing open his coat, he 
stood erect and fearless. "Now then," he proceeded, "if you will, 
drive your spears to my heart; and when you have slain me, my 
companions will know that the hour is come for them to depart." 
Turning to his attendants the chief said, " These men must have 
ten lives. When they are so fearless of death, there must be some- 
thing of immortality." All danger was now past. The intrepid 
missionary had got access to their hearts, and they were, for the 
time at least, subdued. 

The country long known as Griqualand is situated beyond the 
Orange river, and around its junction with the Yaal. 




moffit's courage. (715-) 



716 MISSIONAllY WORK IN AFRICA, 

The Griquas are a mixed race, of which there are several clans 
vulgarly called " Bastards," being the descendants of Dutch Boers 
and their Hottentot slaves. Thej are a tall, athletic, good looking 
race, of light olive complexion. They speak a debased imtois of 
the Dutch language, as do most of the colored inhabitants of South. 
Africa. About the year 1833 the Griquas began to collect and 
settle in the country which bears their name, and to rally round a 
leader or chief named Adam Kok, who displayed considerable tact 
and skill in governing the people who acknowledged his chieftain- 
ship. Some time after, a part of the clan separated themselves from 
the rest, and gatliered round a man named Waterboer, who became 
their captain or chief. Both of these cliiefs, for many years, received 
annual grants from the Colonial Government on condition of their 
loyalty and good conduct. They and their people were ultimately 
removed by an arrangement with the government authorities to a 
region known as " No Man's Land ; " and of late years have become 
scattered. In all their locations they are generally now regarded as 
British subjects, and they have graduall}^ advanced to a pleasingstate 
of civilization and general knowledge. They are largely indebted to 
the missionaries for the respectable position to which they have 
attained among the native tribes. The honored instruments in their 
moral and social elevation have chiefly been the agents of the London 
Missionary Society who have labored among them for many j^ears 
with remarkable energy, zeal and success. The Wesleyan Mis- 
sionary Society have also some prosperous stations in some of the 
Griqua settlements where no other agencies are at work, and the 
results of their labors have been very encouraging. 

In Namaqualand, under circumstances of peculiar trial and priva- 
tion the Wesleyan and Ehenish Societies have labored with com- 
mendable zeal and diligence. Some time ago the Wesleyan stations 
were by a mutual arrangement transferred to the German mission- 
aries. 

In Damaraland missionaries have labored earnestly for many 
years, but the results thus far have been meagre. 

What has been the sum total accomplished by the missionary 
societies in South Africa? 

The Wesleyan Missionary Society began work there in 1814. 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA, 717 

Extending its operations bj degrees from the Cape Colony to 
Kaffaria, Natal, and the Bechuana regions, it now numbers forty 
stations, sixty missionaries, and more than 6,000 members. The 
Rhenish Society which commenced operations in this field in 1829, 
now numbers more than 10,000 members ; and the Berlin, which 
commenced in 1833 and has 8,000 members. The American Board 
which entered the field in 1834, has grown into three missions, the 
Zulu, the East African and the West African, and now numbers 30 
stations, iS laborers fi'om America, more than 40 native assistants, 
about 2,000 under instruction and 7,000 adherents. Besides these 
the French Society is doing a great work among the Bechuana and 
other tribes. The Norwegians are laboring among the Zulus, the 
Scotch among the Kafirs, the Hanoverians and the Church of Eng- 
land in Natal and Zululand. 

These with a few other organizations make more than a dozen 
societies at work in South Africa, occupying more than 200 sta- 
tions, and employing about 500 foreign laborers, besides a much 
larger force of native helpers. Of the success and value of these 
labors we get some idea Avhen we find it estimated that not less than 
40,000 souls have been brought in this way into Christ's kingdom, 
50,000 children gathered into Christian schools, and 100,000 men 
and women blessed with the direct teaching of the Gospel. 

East AFRICAN MISSIONS. 

Leaving South Africa we will now consider briefly what has been 
done by the missionaries in Eastern Africa and that part of Central 
Africa reached by way of the east coast. Here there seemed to 
be less opposition to the entrance of the Gospel than in some other 
parts of Africa, Dominant superstitions do not stand so much in 
the way of its reception.- There is less idolatry or fetish worship, 
such as is found on the western coast, and there are fewer barbarous 
or unnatural rites. The greatest hindrance has been the Arab 
slave trade, which, driven from the west coast had established itself 
on the east coast. The unwise course of the Germans who estab- 
lished a commercial enterprise there in 1889 has led to Arab hos- 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 719 

tilities that appear disastrous in the extreme to missionary work . 
for the present, especially among the Ugandas. 

There are very extensive missionary interests in East Africa. No 
less than thirteen societies are at work on the coast or in the 
interior. It will be more convenient, in considering what has been 
accomplished, to note the work done by each society separately, 
rather than to follow our usual order of treatment by tribe or 
locality. 

As the Church Missionary Society was first in the field we will 
notice its efforts first. 

Tlie first missionary was Dr. Krapflf, a zealous and devoted Ger- 
man. He had previously labored for several years among the Lari 
and Madi natives of the province of Shoa, and when the Abyssinian 
government prohibited his longer residence there he removed to 
Mombasa, where he laid the foundation of a new station under 
promising circumstances. When the way appeared to open up for 
usefulness among the Gallas and other important tribes, Dr. Krapff 
was joined by four additional laborers who were sent out by the 
society to aid him in his work. Their headquarters were at Kisul- 
idini and the mission had every promise of success. But death 
soon thinned the ranks and disappointed many hopes. Only one 
of the missionary band, Mr. Eebmaim, had strength to hold out 
against the climate. He remained at his solitary post of duty sev- 
eral years after the Doctor had been obliged to embark for Europe ; 
but in 1856 he was driven by the hostile incursions of savage 
native tribes to take refuge in the island of Mombasa, and for two 
years the mission on the mainland seemed to be at an end. Mr, 
Eebmann resolved not to lose sight of its ruins, however, and 
employed his waiting time in preparing a translation of the Bible 
into the language of the people among whom he labored. At 
length the desire of the lonely missionary was gratified by a cordial 
invitation to return to Kisulidini, and the hearty welcome he 
received on going there proved that there was further work for him 
to do among this people. For years he labored single-handed 
among this people and managed to keep alive the spark of light 
which Dr. -Krapff had been the means of kindling. After long and 
patient waiting relief came. The deep interest called forth by Dr. 



720 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

Livingstone's last despatches and death, stirred up the church at 
home to fresh efforts on behalf of the African race, and a much 
needed reinforcement was sent out to strengthen the mission on the 
eastern coast, including Mr. Price and Jacob Waiuwright, Living- 
stone's faitliful negro servant. When they arrived at Kisulidini 
they found Mr. Kebmann aged and feeble, and almost blind, but 
still the centre, of a little band of native converts at the old mission 
premises. This mission now comprises eight stations with Mom- 
basa as its base. The constituency at these stations is composed 
chiefly of liberated slaves, who are rescued by British cruisers from 
slave dhows and handed over to the mission, now living in comfort 
as free men, cultivating their own little plots of ground, building 
their own little huts on the society's land, enjoying the rest of the 
Lord's day, seeing their children taught to read and write like the 
white man, and having access at all times for counsel and guidance 
to patient and sympathizing Englishmen. 

Kecently, their former masters combined and threatened to 
destroy the stations if their slaves were not given up. How this 
catastrophy was averted by the tact and generosity of Mr. Macken- 
zie the following will tell : " At Mombasa, Frere Town and Eabai, 
on the east coast of Africa, the English Church Missionary Society 
has for some time been carrying on a work similar to that which has 
been so greatly blessed at Sierra Leone and other places on the west 
coast. The natives who have been rescued from the Arab slave 
vessels by the British cruisers have been taken to the first-named 
towns, where they have been cared for and instructed by the mis- 
sionaries of the society, and a large number of them have become 
new creatures in Christ Jesus, and are now diligent in tilling the soil 
or in following other industrial pursuits. 

" For several years fugitive slaves from the adjoining country 
have sought refuge at the mission stations from the oppressions of 
their Mohammedan masters. Every effort has been made by the 
missions to prevent mere runaways from settling around the- sta- 
tions ; but it has lately been found that many who came and placed 
themselves under Christian teaching, and who were supposed to be 
free natives, were really fugitive slaves. Many of them have em- 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFEICA. 721 

braced Christianity, been baptized, and are leading ' quiet and 
peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.' 

" Suddenly the former Mohammedan masters of the fugitives 
combined and tlireatened destruction to the missions unless they 
were given up again to slavery. It has been a time of great anx- 
iety to the missionaries, and in this crisis they could only commit 
all to the Lord. Happily the danger has been averted by the wise 
and timely action of Mr. Mackenzie, the chief agent of the new 
Imperial British East Africa Company, whose headquarters are at 
Mombasa. Mr. Mackenzie saw that if the regime of this politico- 
commercial company began with the restoration of a thousand 
escaped slaves to the slave owners, its influence would be seriously 
injured. He has, therefore, undertaken to compensate the Arab 
slave-owners, on condition that the whole of this fugitive slave 
population, a large portion of which is Christian, are declared free 
forever. This arrangement has delighted all parties. A grand 
feast has been given by the Mohammedans to Mr. Mackenzie, while 
the slaves are set free and the missions are saved." 

This society had also a line of stations stretching from Zanzibar 
to Uganda. They were nine in number, beginning with Mambola 
and Mpwapwa, nearly due west from Zanzibar, and including Usam- 
biro, Msalala and Nasa, south of Victoria Nyanza, and Eubaga, in 
Uganda, north of the great lake. The origin of the mission in 
Uganda was on this wise : " When Stanley went away from Ugan- 
da, Mtesa, the king, said to him, 'Stamee, say to the white people, 
when you write to them, that I am like a man sitting in darkness, 
or born blind, and that all I ask is that I may be taught how to 
see, then I shall continue a Christian while I live.' Mtesa's appeal, 
through Stanley, to English Christians, had its response. The 
Church Missionary Society sent several missionaries, who were 
heartily welcomed by Mtesa, and protected as long as he lived." 

As public attention has recently, and for different reasons, been 
very generally directed to Uganda, it may not be amiss to give a 
more detailed account of the situation and prospects there. 

Near tlie shores of those majestic lakes — Albert and Victoria 
ISTyanza — which give rise to the Nile, are large tribes, akin to one 
another in speech and habit, and quite advanced in civilization, as 
46 



722 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

tilings go in Africa. They are the Baganda, Luganda and Ugan- 
da, all of which have been visited and described by Stanley and 
other well-known travellers. Of these, the Uganda are the most 
numerous and advanced. This region was for a long time looked 
upon as a fair field for missionary enterprise, irrespective of the 
fact that it had been an old and favorite stamping ground for Arab 
traders and slave dealers, whose influence would naturally be against 
Christian intervention. But in 1876, missionaries went out from 
England, and founded several missions, mostly in the Uganda coun- 
try. They proved to be prosperous, and fast became the centres of 
Christian communities, whose influence was felt from one lake to the 
other. But after over ten years of prosperity, a civil war broke 
out, instigated by the Arabs, which resulted in the enthronement 
of Mwanga, who was hostile to the missionaries and their Christian 
converts. He signalized the first year of his reign by the murder 
of Bishop Hannington and the massacre of many of his Christian sub- 
jects. By 1889, all but one of this missionary band had perished either 
through disease or royal cruelty, and their converts were forced to 
become refugees. The survivors, Mr. Mackay, after being held as 
a hostage for months, was finally released, and made his escape to 
Usambiro, where he took up work with the hope that at no dis- 
tant day he might be able to extend it back into the abandoned 
lake regions. 

. In his " Emin Pasha in Central Africa," Mr. E. W. Felkin thus 
sketches the character of the two great Uganda kings, Mtesa and 
Mwanga : 

" Mtesa was first heard of in Europe from Speke and Grant, who 
visited Uganda in 1862. He professed to trace back his descent to 
Kintu (or Ham) the founder of the dynasty. When I visited him in 
1879 he was about 45 years of age, a splendid man, some six feet 
high, well formed and strongly built. He had an oval face, and his 
features were well cut. 

"He had large, mild eyes, but if roused by anger or mirth they 
were lit up by a dangerous fire. He had lost the pure Mhuma 
features through admixture of Negro blood, but still retained suf- 
ficient characteristics of that tribe to prevent all doubt as to his 
origin. All his movements were very graceful ; his hands were 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 723 

slender, well formed, and supple ; lie was generally dressed in a 
simple white Arab kaftan. It is somewhat difficult to describe his 
character ; he was intensely proud, very egotistical, and, until near 
the end of his life, he thought himself to be the greatest king on 
earth. In his youth, and in fact until 1878, there is no doubt that 
he was cruel, but an illness from which he suffered certainly 
softened him. 

" His chiefs often said to me, ' Oh, if Mtesa were well, there 
would be plenty of executions.' It has been said that he was 
extremely changeable and fickle, and to superficial observers he was 
so ; that is to say, as far as his intercourse with Europeans went. 
If, however, one looks a little deeper into his character, he finds that 
his apparent vaciliation was overruled by a fixed idea, which was to 
benefit his people, increase his own importance, and to get as much 
as possible out of the strangers who visited his court. This explains 
his being one day a friend to the Arabs, on another to the Protest- 
ants, and on a third to the Catholics. A newcomer, especially, if 
he had a large caravan, was always the favorite of the hour. It is 
not difficult for any one to enter Uganda, but to get away again is 
no easy task, unless he is going for a fresh supply of goods. Mtesa 
liked Europeans and Arabs to be present at his court; it gave him 
prestige, and he also wished his people to learn as much as they 
could from the white men, for he well knew and appreciated their 
superior knowledge. In manners he was courteous and gentle- 
manly, and he could order any one off to execution with a smile on 
his countenance. His mental capacity was of a very high order. 
He was shrewd and intelligent ; he could read and write Arabic, 
and could speak several native languages. He had a splendid 
memory, and enjoyed a good argument very keenly. If he could 
only get Protestants, Catholics and Arabs to join in a discussion 
before him, he was in his element, and although apparently siding 
with one or other, who might happen to beat the time his especial 
favor, he took care to maintain his own ground, and I do not 
believe that he ever really gave up the least bit of belief in his old 
Pagan ideas. While too shrewd and intelligent to believe in the 
grosser superstitions which find credit among his people, he was 
yet so superstitious that if he dreamt of any of the gods of his 



724 MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 

country he believed it to be an ill omen, and offered buman sacri- 
fices to appease tbe anger of tlie offended deity. Shortly after I left 
U^^anda, he dreamt of his father, and in consequence had 500 people 
put to death. He also believed that if he dreamt of any living per- 
son it was a sign that they meditated treachery, and he condemned 
them forthwith to death. This supposed power of divination is 
said to be hereditary in the royal race. In concluding my remarks 
about Mtesa, I may say that he denied his Wahuma origin; not 
only, however, did his features betray him, but many of the tradi- 
tions he held regarding his ancestors, especially his descent from 
Ham, point conclusively to an origin in the old Christianity of 
Abyssinia. 

"When I was in Uganda, Mtesa had 200 or 300 women always 
residing at his court. He did not know exactly how many wives 
he had, bat said that they certainly numbered 700. He had sev- 
enty sons and eighty-eight daughters. 

" Mwanga is the present king of Uganda, having been chosen by 
the three hereditary chiefs at the death of his father, Mtesa, and it 
is certainly to be attributed to the influence of the missionaries in 
Uganda, that the usual bloodshed which attends the succession to 
the throne in Uganda, did not take place. On ascending the throne 
he was about 16 years of age, and up to that time had been a 
simple, harmless youth, but his high position soon turned his head, 
and he became suspicious, abominably cruel and really brutal. He 
began to drink and to smoke hang^ and up to the present tim^e his 
rule has been characterized by tyranny and bloodshed, far surpass- 
ing anything that happened in his father's time. Nor does he 
appear to possess those good characteristics which certainly caused 
his father to deserve some respect. A number of Christians, 
Protestants and Catholics have been tortured and burned at the 
stake by his orders, and Bishop Hannington was murdered by his 
command at Lubwa, on the borders of Uganda." 

A writer in the N. Y. Evangelist observes further : 

" Of course, Mwanga was a coward as well as a cruel and blood- 
stained despot. Because he made Uganda impenetrable, no direct 
news from Wadelai about the movements of Stanley or Emin 
Pasha could reach Zanzibar. Very naturally he was obliged to face 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 726 

an insurrection. To save his worthless hfe he fled from his king- 
dom, and his older brother, Kiwewa, succeeded him. Because 
under his rule the missionaries were afgain in favor, Kiwewa was 
soon forced to abdicate before an insurrection incited by the Arabs, 
whom the policy of bis brother had brought into the kingdom, and 
in which such of his own subjects opposed the missionaries cheer- 
fully participated. While about a score of missionaries escaped 
unharmed, all missionary property was destroyed, many native 
missionaries were murdered, the Arabs became dominant in Ugan- 
da, and the kingdom, it may be for several years, is closed against 
Christianity. The living missionaries have quite recently been 
ransomed. 

" What is to be the influence of this new Arab kingdom in Cen- 
tral Africa? This, with many, is a pressing question. In answer- 
ing it we must remember that these so called Arabs really have in 
their veins no Arab blood. They are coast Arabs of the lowest 
classes, and the proud and strong Uganda chiefs will not submit for 
any considerable length of time to the rule of any such men. They 
may use such men ; they will never become their slaves. The 
country is more likely to be broken up into hostile sections. These 
may wear themselves out in wars against each other, and thus may 
be realized the hope that the British East African Company, from 
their new territory between Victoria ISTyanza and the coast, would 
push its influence and its operations over Uganda, and the whole 
lake region of Central Africa. These Arab slave-traders are cer- 
tainly not the men to construct or reconstruct an empire. Those 
who know them best see no prospect that they will be able by in- 
trigue, which is their only agency, to sustain themselves in Uganda. 

" The character and habits of the Uganda people seem to forbid 
their enslavement. They are the onlv people in Central Africa 
that clothe themselves from head to foot. Besides their own in- 
genious utensils for housekeeping, the chase and war, thousands of 
European weapons and implements are found in their possession, 
and being ready workers in iron, they immediately imitate what they 
import. They are apt linguists, and their children have rapidly ac- 
quired the French and English languages from the missionaries. 
They have neither idols nor fetishes. They have no affiliations 



726 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 



with Mohammedanism, and are not likely to become its subjects 
for any considerable time. There is still good reason to hope for 
a better future for Uganda." 

The London Missionary Society has ever been forward to enter 
new fields of labor. On Livingstone's return to England, after his 
great journey across the continent of Africa in 1856, he urged this 
society, in whose service he had previously been engaged, to estab- 
lish a mission on the banks of the Zambesi, with a tribe of natives 
known as the Makololo, with the view of reaching other tribes in 





TINDER-BOX, FLINT AND STEEL. 

the interior through them. A mission was organized accordingly, 
which was to start from the Cape of Good Hope direct for the in' 
terior. This journey was to be made in the usual Soutli African 
style, namely, in wagons drawn by long teams of oxen. Living- 
stone himself went round by the eastern coast, purposing to meet 
the missionaries in the valley of the Zambesi, and to introduce them 
to the chiefs with whom he was personally acquainted. The mis- 
sionaries selected for this purpose were Eevs. Helmore and Price, 
tlie first of whom was a middle-aged minister, with a wife and fam- 



728 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

ilj, and had labored in Soutli Africa for several years previously, 
whilst Mr. Price was a young man recently married, and was en- 
tering upon mission work for the first time. Tlie incidents of the 
journey, as well as the issue of this mission were the most afflictive 
and distressing. The mission wagons had scarcely passed the 
boundary of the Cape Colony when water and grass for the oxen 
became scarce, and tlieir progress was accordingly slow and dreary. 
Many of their oxen died and tlieir places were supplied with difficulty 
by cattle purchased from the natives. When they came to cross the 
outskirts of the desert of Kalahara their sufferings were terrible. 
They at length reached the valley of the Zambesi where they had 
an ample supply of grass and water; but they soon found them- 
selves in a low, swampy, unhealthy country, and when they reached 
their destination in the Makololo country, they did not meet with 
the cordial reception from the chief and his people which they ex- 
pected. Dr. Livingstone, who was engaged in exploring the lower 
branches of the Zambesi was moreover unable to meet them as he 
intended. They naturally became discouraged ; and before they 
got anything done of consequence in the way of teaching the people, 
the chief still withholding his consent to their movements, the 
country fever broke out among them with fearful violence. Mr. 
Helmore's four children, who suffered so much from thirst in the 
desert, were smitten down one after another and died. They were 
buried but a short time when graves were made beside them for 
both their parents. Mr. and Mrs. Price began to think of retracing 
their steps to the Cape Colony, and at length with heavy hearts 
they yoked the oxen to the wagons and started toward civilization. 
But in crossing the desert Mrs. Price also died, so that Mr. Price 
was left to return alone. 

In 1877 in response to an application made by the son and suc- 
cessor of the chief in Makololo, the Eev. J. D. Hepburn, of Shos- 
hong, and outpost of the Bechuana mission, commenced a mission 
on Lake Ngami, two native evangelists who had completed their 
studies at Kuruman were settled there and are doing good work. 

^ The London Society goes further west than any of the other so- 
cieties and plants two stations on Lake Tanganyika, and one at 



MISSIONAEY WORK IN AFRICA. 729 

Urambo in the TJnyamwezi, south of the Victoria Nyanza and 
near the stations of the Cliurch Missionary Society. 

The Universities' Mission has twelve stations, one in Zanzibar, 
four in the Usambara country north of Zanzibar, four on or near 
the river Rovuma and three on the east shore of Lake Nyassa. 

The mission of the Fi'ee Church of Scotland on the shores of 
Lake Nyassa was founded in 1861 by Rev. Dr. James Stewart. 
Reinforcements were sent out in 1875. They took with them the 
steam launch Llala to be used upon the waters of Lake Nyassa. 
In 1876 Dr. Wm. Black, an ordained medical missionary, an agri- 
culturist, an engineer, and a weaver, joined them. In 1879 Miss 
Watterston joined the staff', as female medical missionary and super- 
intendent of the girls' boarding and training school. In 1880 they 
met with a great loss in the death of their agriculturist, John Gunn, 
who had proved himself helpful in every department of work. 

The Free Church of Scotland has recently opened a new mission 
at Malinda, on the high plain north of Lake Nyassa. The station 
is surrounded by seventeen villages, embosomed in gardens of 
magnificent bananas. At Karonga two services are held every 
Sabbath, and the congregation numbers 600 natives. Dr. Cross 
attempted to push his work into the highlands, but was driven back, 
and compelled to relj^ on Capt. Lugard's armed force of 150 natives. 
These aggressive movements against the missions in Nyassaland, as 
elsewhere, are attributable to Arab slave traders, who are the worst 
enemies Christianity has to contend with in Africa. Thej' now 
have five stations on Lake Nyassa. 

The Established Church of Scotland Mission was founded in 1875 
by Mr. Heary Henderson. The staff comprised a medical mission- 
ary, an agriculturist, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a joiner and a sea- 
man and boatbuilder. To Mr. Henderson belongs the credit of 
having selected an incomparable site. It was originally intended 
that the mission should be planted in the neighborhood of Lake 
Nyassa; but he found a more suitable locality in the highlands 
above tlie Shire, east of the cataracts, and midway between 
Magomero and Mount Soche. The ground rises from the river in a 
succession of terraces. It is about 3,000 feet above the sea, and 
extends from twelve to fifteen miles in breadth. Gushing springs 



730 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

and flowing streams abound. The scenery is beautiful and pictur- 
esque. The soil is fertile. There is abundance of good timber 
and iron ore. The chiefs are friendly and the people are willing to 
receive instruction. And, what is an essential requisite, the climate 
is in a high degree salubrious. In the words of Livingstone, " it 
needs no quinine." 

The settlement, which is named Blantyre, after Livingstone's 
birth-place, was planned and laid out under the superintendence of 
Dr. Stewart and Mr. James Stewart. On the farm and gardens sur- 
rounding, over 500 natives of both sexes are employed. Mr. Hen- 
derson having returned, on the completion of the special work for 
which he was appointed, Kev. Duff Macdonald and wife were sent 
out in 1878. They were soon after recalled on account of difficul- 
ties arising from the mission's claim to exercise civil jurisdiction 
over the settlement. Eev. David Clement Scott was appointed to 
take their place. 

One of the most important works in connection with Living- 
stonia, the name of the Free Church of Scotland's Mission, and 
Blantyre Mission, was the formation of a road, projected by Dr. 
Stewart and surveyed by Mr. J. Stewart. . It varies from six to ten 
feet in width, and extends from the Upper Shire, at the head of tlie 
cataracts, for a distance of about thirty-five miles to Blantyre, and 
thence for nearly an equal distance through a steep and rugged 
country to Eamakukan's, at the foot of the^cataract. Facilities are 
thus afforded for communication with the coast. Tlie expense of 
its construction was borne equally by the two missions. A traveller 
who has frequently visited this region writes as follows: 

" The outlet for the waters of Lake Nyassa is the river Shire 
which flows into the Zambesi. Except for a short distance in one 
part, this river is navigable throughout its course ; and at about 
sixty or seventy miles after it leaves the lake it takes a bend west- 
ward, and here below Matope, a station of the African Lakes Com- 
pany, it becomes unnavigable by reason of the Murchison Cataracts. 
Below these is another station of the African Lakes Company at 
Katunga's, and from here there is no further difficulty in navigat- 
ing the river. All goods, therefore, and passengers bound for 
Nyassa, are landed from the African Lakes Company's steamer at 



MISSION AKY WORK IN AFRICA. 731 

Katanga's, and after a journey of some seventy miles across a ridge 
of high ground are put on the river again at Matope. About 
half-way between Katunga's and Matope is the African Lakes 
Company's store and settlement at Mandala, and little more than a 
mile from it the flourishing mission village of Blantyre of the 
Established Cliurch of Scotland. It is wonderful to see this vil- 
lage, with its gardens, schools, and houses, in the midst of Africa. 
The writer has twice, within the last three years, when visiting 
Nyassa, experienced the generous hospitality of Mandala and Blan- 
tyre, and so can speak from bis own personal observation. Being 
situated on such high ground, the climate is much more favorable 
to Europeans than at most mission stations in that region. It is 
easier also, for the same reason, to grow fruits and vegetables im- 
ported from Europe. It is difficult to overestimate the effect of such 
a settlement as a civilizing agency in the country. Mr. Hetherwick, 
who was in charge of the station for some time in Mr. Scott's absence, 
has mastered the language of the great Yao tribe, and has lately 
published a translation of St. Matthew's Gospel, which shows a won- 
derful grasp of the genius of the language. Mr. Hetherwick has now 
returned to his mission station, some fifty miles to the northeast, 
under Mount Zomba. Mr. Scott is said to be equally a master of 
Chinyanja, the language of the Nyassa tribes. The English govern- 
ment have recognized the important influence these settlements 
are likely to have by appointing a consul on Nj^assa, who has 
lately built a house close to the flourishing coffee and sugar planta- 
tions of Mr. Buchanan under Mount Zomba, about forty miles from 
Blantyre, and near Lake Kilwa or Shirwa. Mr. Buchanan is also 
a good Yao scholar, and takes care to teach the people, who come 
to him in considerable numbers for employment. Situated high 
up on the slope of Mount Zomba, which rises precipitously above 
it, the streams which rush down from its summit are diverted and 
distributed so as to form a system of irrigation, Mr. Buchanan's 
plantation is a picture of beauty and prosperity, and offers every 
prospect of health and permanence. 

" Wlien we come to Lake Nyassa, we find missions established 
on each side of the lake. On the west side are the stations at Cape 
Maclear and Bandawe, while connected with the latter are sub-sta- 



732 MISSIONAKY WORK IN AFRICA. 

tions, among whicli is an important mission to tte Angoni, a 
marauding tribe of Zulu origin. Dr. Laws, at Bandawe, has been 
a long time in the country, and has thoroughly won the confidence 
of the people. On one occasion, when the writer visited him, some 
five or six hundred people assembled in his schools, in which large 
numbers of children are taught daily. The Universities' Missions 
are on the east side of the lake." 

The United Methodist Free Churches in 1863 began a mission at 
Ribe, about eighteen miles north of Mombasa. The ministers 
selected for this service were the Revs. New and Wakefield. For 
several years they were engaged in preparatory work, erecting 
buildings, cultivating garden grounds, exploring the country, learn- 
ing the native language, preparing translations, teaching school, 
and preaching as they had opportunity. Their difficulties were 
numerous and their progress slow. The unhealthy character of the 
climate here, as on the western coast, is the greatest hindrance to 
the progress of the work. Rev. C. ISTew fell a sacriflice to its fatal 
influence in 1876, and Mrs. Wakefield died later, but others have 
taken their places. They now have two stations in the Mombasa 
District, Rib^ and Joursee and one in Gallaland, 

Several German societies are also represented in East Africa, The 
ISTew Kirchen Society has had since 1887 a station at Ngao, on the 
Tana in the Suabali country, with two missionaries. The Evan- 
gelical Lutheran Missionary Society of Bavaria has stations at 
Junba, and at Mbangu among the Wakamba, six hours inland, with 
three missionaries. The Berlin Society have stations at Zanzibar 
and Dar-es-Salam where one of the massacres took place. 

The Roman Catholics — French and German — have several sta- 
tions in East Africa. The French have three stations on or near 
Lake Victoria Nyanza, the most important of which is the one in 
Uganda under Pere Lourdel ; two at Lake Tanganyika; one at 
Bagamoya, west of Zanzibar, and one or two others. The Jesuits 
have also a few stations, and the German Catholics have one at 
Dar-es-Salam. These are all the societies at work in East Africa. 
As we look at their achievements, to human ken they do not 
appear commensurate with what they liave cost. We do not mean 
of course in money, though that has been great, one society alone 



MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 733 

having spent $500,000, but in the sacrifice of human health, and 
human lives. Four bishops, Mackenzie, Steere, Hannington, 
Parker, and a great army of missionaries, some of tbem nobly and 
highly-gifted men, have given up tbeir lives for East Africa. We 
can bat reverence the heroism which has led them forth to die in a 
strange land. The apparent results are meagre and even some of 
these seem likely to be destroyed ; but we dare not say their lives 
have been needlessly wasted. In human warfare when a fortress 
has to be stormed, does the knowledge of the fact that many of the 
flower of his army will perish in the attempt, cause the general to 
hesitate ? Do the soldiers refuse to obey the command, because the 
undertaking is fraught with danger? Were they to do so they 
would be branded as cowards. East Africa is a part of the world 
and Christ's command surely includes the taking of such almost 
impregnable fortresses as frown upon his soldiers in that dark 
region. Then, too, the time has been short ; great results may 
follow in the future the work that has already been done. 

We have not written anything concerning missionary work in the 
Soudan simply because nothing has been done in that vast region. 
Dr. Guinness saj'-s of it : " The Soudan is the true home of the 
negro, a vaster region than the Congo, which is 4,000 miles across, 
with its twelve nations, and not a mission station. It is the last 
region of any magnitude unpenetrated by the Gospel." Through 
Dr. Guinness' influence a number of the most active workers in the 
Y. M. 0. A., in Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota have decided to 
be pioneers in this densely populated part of Africa. They propose 
to enter, by the way of Liberia and the Kong mountains, the Sou- 
dan of the Niger and Lake Tchad, where are nearly 100,000,000 of 
people without a missionary. They mean to form a living tie 
between that region and their associations and churches at home. 

We have followed the footsteps of the missionaries over all the 
Dark Continent only stopping to note the most important of their 
achievements. Their sacrifices have been recorded and will not be 
forgotten. Though their sufferings have been great, they have been 
of short duration, for Africa seems to be the "short cut" to the 
skies. 

We close our account of missionary work in Africa with the fol- 



734 MISSIONARY WORK IN AFRICA. 

lowing from Mr. Grant: " The successes of the past, the openings 
of the present, and the demand for the future, should awaken a 
redoubled devotion to the blessed work. In no age of the world, in 
no history of continents, can anything be found so surprising as the 
discoveries and developments made in Africa since the days of those 
pioneer missionaries, Schmidt and Vanderkemp. It would take 
long to tell how her bays have been sounded since their time, how 
her plains have been spanned, her mountains scaled, her rivers 
threaded, lakes discovered, diamonds found, and a goodly number 
of grand highways projected into even the remotest parts of that, 
till of late little known, yet most marvelous land of the sun ; and 
all under the gracious ordering of the Lord, that men freighted 
with the blessings of the Gospel of God's own dear Son might enter 
and occupy. Ethiopia, all Africa, is on tiptoe of expectancy, only 
waiting to know who God is, tliat she may stretch out her hands to 
Him, and be lifted into His truth and grace." 



Afric'? Ligp? and ^hadoW?. 

ARNOT IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 

" My idea of Africa had been that of a land very much desert, 
or else marshy and almost uninhabitable. But here was a region 
rich, fertile and beautiful, well watered, and, better still, with many 
people living all along the banks of the rivers. Of course, we had 
varied kinds of receptions. At one place, among the Bakuti, it 
was very remarkable how the people seemed to open their ears and 
hearts and gave their time. I spent ten days among them. The 
first five I went among their villages, having large meetings. As I 
could speak a dialect which many of them understood, I could 
explain myself quite freely to them. They became very much 
interested in what they heard me say, and they said among them- 
selves : ' "We are only tiring the white man out by coming day 
after day to our villages ; we will go to him.' So, for the last five 
days they gathered together, and we had all-day meetings — a most 
extraordinary time, I might say, for Africa. They kept up the 
discussions among themselves, and before I left at least two of the 
men stood up in the midst of their tribe and declared for Jesus 
before all their friends, in their own simple language. 

" We had to leave these people, and went on traveling from day 
to day. At one point we had rather a different reception. We 
had pitched our camp in the midst of long grass. Toward evening, 
as we were getting things in order, we found the grass round our 
camp was on fire. As soon as the men succeeded in extinguishing 
the flames eight of them were missing. Then we understood an 
enemy had surrounded us, set the grass on fire, and carried off all 
the stragglers. There was notliing to do but to find their trail and 
follow them up. After a ten-miles' journey we reached a little vil- 
liage in the forest where they were resting. They thought we had 

735 



736 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

come to fight with them, and they rushed out with their guns, bows 
and arrows, and spears, to receive us. My men, thirty or forty in 
number, being only Africans, got into fighting order and began to 
load their guns for action. I was a little way behind, and did not 
take in the situation at once. Seeing how things were going, I ran 
forward, seized a little stool, and held it up in the air as a signal of 
peace. This arrested the enemy, and at last two of them came for- 
ward to hear what I had to say. After a little talk it turned out 
that the whole thing was a mistake. They thought we had come 
to their country to rob and plunder them, and quite naturally, in 
self-defense, they wished to have the first hit at us. Next day we 
spent the time in receiving presents and telling them of the things 
we had been speaking to the people all along the road. 

"At another point on the journey there was a chief who had 
heard about the things of God. He was intensely interested in the 
reports, and he came himself, to see me. Before we had time to 
settle down to speak, he said : ' All the huntsmen have been called 
in ; the women are in from the fields ; we are all here, and we want 
you at once to begin your conversation with us about the Great 
Spirit and those things you have been talking of along the road.' 
After talking with them for some hours, the chief asked me to go 
with him to their village. He said there were some old people 
there who could not come down to hear me with the others, he 
wanted me very much to go and see them. I went up to the vil- 
lage and conversed with these poor old broken-down people, one 
after another, and it was most touching. They shook hands with 
me and looked me in the face with such a look ! Some of them 
were too old to understand the things I had been telling to the 
younger people ; they could only look wistfully at me and shake 
m.e by the hand. It reminded me of an old man I had spoken with 
on the upper Zambesi. After leaving my hut he came back to the 
door and said : ' It is so strange for me to hear these things for the 
first time, and I so old.' Truly, it must strike them strangely. 
There are many physical difaculties connected with travel in Africa, 
and I would be the last to urge any particular individual to go out 
there. But there are no difficulties in the preaching of the Word. 
As soon as you learn a little of the language you can have all the 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 737 

attention of tlie people and all their time. I may say, in going 
among tbem, it is important to get some standing at tLeir native 
courts. I have always taken the place of an ambassador from 
another country, and have demanded from them a hearing. This 
is the surest way of getting the attention, not only of the chief, but 
of all the people." 

KILLED BY AN ELEPHANT. 

"A sad termination of an heroic defender of a righteous cause, 
was the death of Mr. Deane, the recent chief of Stanley Falls Sta- 
tion, Congo State. Capt. Coquilhat, one of Mr. Stanley's faithful 
coadjutors in founding the State of Congo, gives, in his official 
report, the following statement: 'In August last (1887), a female 
slave escaped from the Arab camp at Stanley Falls, and sought 
refuge in the Congo State Station there. Her surrender was 
demanded and refused. The Arabs were very angry, and made 
threats of war, which Mr. Deane disregarded. The slave-hunters 
had about 2,000 troops, while the garrison of the station numbered 
about fifty. The steamer Stanley then arrived, and the Arabs 
kept quiet till she left; but, the day after her departure, they 
attacTsed the station without warning, and, in couise of three days, 
made four attacks, which were repulsed, the garrison losing two 
men and the Arabs sixty. At the end of the third day, the Haussa 
soldiers and the Bangalas refused to fight longer, as their rifle 
ammunition was spent.' [The Ilaussas* are native soldiers hired 
by the Congo State. They come from near Acra, on the Gulf of 
Guinea. The Bangalas belong to a desperate and warlike tribe, 
that fought Stanley on his first tri}t down the Congo.] 'So these 
native soldiers took to their canoes at nightfall on the 26th of 
August, and went down the river. Mr. Deane and Mr. Dubois, the 
only white men in the garrison, remained behind with eight men 
to fire the buildings and destroy the stores. This they did, blow- 
ing up the two cannon and the remaining gunpowder, and then 
escaped themselves from the island, on which the station was 
located, to the north bank of the Congo, and made their way along 
its bank on foot, in the dark. On their way, the banks being very 
47 



738 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

steep, Dubois fell into tlie river. Mr. Deane jumped in after him, 
and succeeded in getting him on to a rock ; but poor Dubois was 
drowned in attempting to get from the rock to the mainland. 
Deane sought refuge among the natives, and found them most 
friendly. They showed him great devotion, taking him from one 
place of shelter to another, hiding liim from the Arabs, supplying 
him with food, and keeping him till he was rescued.' The Haussas 
and Bangalas arrived in their canoes at Bangala Station, where 
Capt. Coquilhat was stationed as Commander-in-Chief of that 
department, on September 7th. The captain at once went up in 
the steamer Henry Eeed, then in the service of the Congo Govern- 
ment, and, finding the Stanley Falls Station in ruins and in the 
hands of the Arabs, he went in search of Mr. Deane, and after three 
days of diligent inquiry, found him, and rescued him from the fury 
of the Arabs. 

"It is sad to relate, as I learn from Bradley L. Burr, our chief 
missionary at Kimpoko, Stanley Pool, that recently Mr. Deane, in 
an elephant hunt, was charged and killed by an Upper Congo 
elephant. 

"Those who brave the perils of Africa ought always to be pre- 
pared to die. The destruction of the Arab slave trade, and the 
redemption of Africa, will cost the lives of more than 1,000 mis- 
sionary heroes and heroines. People who want to run home from 
Africa before they see the elephant had better go to Barnum's show 
and stay at home." ^ Wm. Taylor. 

THE AFRICAN PUFF ADDER. 

''It is essentially a forest animal, its true habitat being among 
the fallen leaves in the deep shade of the trees by the banks of 
streams. Now, in such a position, at the distance of a foot or two, 
its appearance so exactly resembling the forest bed as to be almost 
indistinguishable from it. I was once just throwing myself under 
a tree to rest, wlien stooping to clear the spot, I noticed a peculiar 
TKittern among the leaves. I started back in horror to find a pufi' 
adder of the largest size, its thick back only visible and its fangs 
only a I'aw inches from my face as I stooped. It Avas lying con-- 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 739' 

cealed among fallen leaves so like itself that but for the excep- 
tional caution which in African travel becomes a habit, I should 
certainly have sat down on it, and to sit down on a puff adder is to 
sit down for the last time. I think this semi-somnolent attitude is 
not always the mere attitude of repose. This reptile lay length- 
wise concealed, all but a few inches, among the withered leaves. 
ISTow, the peculiarity of the puff' adder is that he strikes backward. 
Lying on the ground, therefore, it commands as it were, its whole 
rear, and the moment any part is touched the head doubles back- 
ward with inconceivable swiftness, and the poison fangs close on 
their victim. The puff adder in this way forms a sort of horrid 
trap set in the woods, which may be altogether unperceived till it 
shuts with a sudden spring on its prey." Henry Drummond. 

THE KASAI REGION. 

'' I have been here a month, and I am far from regretting my 
new residence. Luluaburg resembles none of the other State stations. 
This is the country of plantations, of cattle, of large undulated hills 
covered with short grass. We lead here rather the life of the 
Boers (farmers) than that of the Congo. 

" We break bulls to ride, and they are as valuable as horses. 
They are sometimes vicious enough, but one becomes accustomed 
to that. Nevertheless, a horse could never do what a bull does: 
swim the rivers, climb the most rugged hills, and descend the 
steepest slopes with an admirable surety of foot and peei'less 
vigor. 

"I have broken for my service a huge chestnut bull ; he travels 
very well, and you would be astonished to see me on that beast over- 
leap obstacle at a gallop, as easily as the best horse of the course. 

"We have already thirty animals at the station. Every day we 
have butter and cheese. Mr. Puissant has charge of the dairy, and 
he performs his work well. 

" As to the natives of the region, they are much the best negroes 
I know. In short, I am greatly pleased here, and am never 
sick." 

Mr. Legat, who sends this news, is the veteran of the Congo State 



AFRIc's LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 741 

agents. He was of the party of 1881, and has not left the country 
since that epoch. 

A LITTLE CONGO HERO. 

On the Congo, near the equator, live the Bengala, with whom 
the explorer, Stanley, Lad liis hardest battle when he floated down 
the great river. They are the most powerful and intelligent of the 
Upper Congo natives, and since Capt. Coquilhat, four years ago, 
established a station in their country they have become good friends 
of the whites. A while ago an exciting event occurred in one of 
their many villages, and Essalaka, the chief, went to Capt. Coquil- 
hatto tell him about it. 

" You know the big island near my town," he said. " Well, 
yesterday, soon after the sun came up, one of my women and our 
little boy started for the island in a canoe. The boy is some dozen 
of moons old. (Capt. Coquilhart says about twelve years old.) He 
said that while his mother v/as paddling she saw something in the 
water, and leaned over to look at it. Then he saw a crocodile seize 
his mother and drag her out the canoe. Then the crocodile and 
the woman sank out of sight. 

"The paddle was lying in the canoe. The boy picked it up to 
paddle back to the village. Then he thought, * Oh, if I could only 
scare the crocodile and get mother back ! ' He could tell by the 
moving water where the crocodile was. He was swimming under 
the surface toward the island. Then the boy followed the crocodile 
just as fast as he could paddle. Very soon the crocodile reached 
the island and went out on land. He laid the woman's body on the 
ground. Then he went back into the river and swam away. You 
know why he did this. He wanted his mate and started out to find 
her. 

" Then the little boy paddled fast to where his mother was lying. 
He jumped out of the boat and ran to her. There was a big wound 
in her breast. Her eyes were shut. He felt sure she was dead. 
He is strong, but he could not lift her. He dragged her to the 
canoe. He knew the crocodile might come back at any moment 
and kill him, too. He used all his strength. Little by little he 



•742 AFfelc'S LIGHTS Ais^D SJtADOWg. 

^•ot his mother's body into tlie canoe. Then he pushed away from 
the shore and started home. 

" We had not seen the boy and his mother at alh Suddenly we 
heard shouting on the river, and we saw tlie boy paddling as hard 
as he could. Every two or three strokes he would look behind. 
Then we saw a crocodile swimming fast toward the canoe. If he 
reached it you know what he would do. He would upset it with a 
blow, and both the boy and his mother would be lost. 

" Eight or nine of us jumped into canoes and started for the boy. 
The crocodile had nearly overtaken the canoe, but we reached it in 
time. We scared the crocodile away, and brought the canoe to the 
shore. The boy stepped out on the ground and fell down. He was 
so frightened and tired. We carried him into one of my huts, and 
took his mother's body in there, too. We thought she was dead. 

"But after a little while she opened her eyes. She could 
whisper only two or three words. She asked for the boy. We 
laid him beside her on her arm. She stroked him two or three 
times with her hand. But she was hurt so badly. Then she shut 
her eyes and did not open them or speak again. Oh ! liowthe little 
boy cried. But he had saved his mother's body from the croc- 
odile." 

As Essalake told this story the tears coursed down his cheek. " I 
have seen in this savage tribe," writes Capt. Coquilhat, " men and 
their wives who really love each other, and veritable honeymoons 
among yoimg couples. The child feels for his father the fear and 
respect which his authority inspires, but he truly loves his mother 
and has a tender interest in her even after he becomes a man." 

FOEMER OBSTACLES REMOVED. 

"Missionaries who go to Africa now, may think they have a hard 
time, but they can know but little of the obstacles in the way of 
the pioneers, and it will be profitable to notice a few of the things 
which hindered the marked success of missionaries fifty years ago, 
that are now largely removed. 

"(1) The terrible slave trade prevailed all along the western 
coast, from the Gambia to Loanda. These foreign traders hated 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 743 

the missionary and did all tliej could to keep liirn out, well know- 
ing that the two could not dwell together. They said to the kings 
where 1 labored, respecting mj predecessor who began the mission 
in a nest of slave traders: ' If you do not drive that man from the 
country, we will have to leave.'' 

"They prejudiced the natives against the missionary, by lies and 
misrepresentation ; they demoralized them l:)y the rum, guns and 
powder, which they paid for slaves. They induced and encouraged 
internal wars for the purpose of securing prisoners to be sold as 
slaves. 

" By these means, large districts of the country were devastated 
(as I have seen), a disregard of human rights and life fostered, and 
a prevailing desire for rum and self-indulgence generally created. 

"Thus, when the missionaries came they did not appreciate 
them, or their work. They only cared for what slave-traders 
brought them. 

" And as they held the coasts, the missionaries could not reach 
the interior. They must begin on the low, sickly coasts, amid such 
unfavorable surroundings, or do notliing. My predecessor desired 
and planned to locate in the interior, but the way was thus block- 
aded. And so all along the coast. 

" But now that obstacle is removed ; the country is open, and mis- 
sionaries can go where they chose a field, and find a people ready to 
receive them. 

" (2) Tlie ignorance of the people was. a bar to progress. They did 
not understand the objects of the missionary, nor the difference 
between missionaries and traders. So, when missionaries went to 
Ujiji, the people began to bring them slaves to sell, knowing of no 
other motive they could have in coming to their country. 

"■ And, in other places, they have welcomed a mission because it 
brought trade to their country. And, looking upon missionaries as 
traders, they once had to pay rent for the privilege of living in the 
country as traders. Thus my predecessor had to agree to pay $100 
a year (in gold) that he might have a place to preach and teach 
their children. And he had to feed, clothe and provide everything 
for the children. And this I did for six years after him. We were 
"willing to do this till they learned the value of education and the 



744 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

Gospel, and that we miglit prepare native teachers. And, besides^ 
we had to make many presents, because we had their children! 

"So it was forty years ago ; but not now. They have learned 
that the missionaries bring only blessings to tlieir country, and they 
are anxious to have their children 'learn books,' and be ' taught 
white man's way.' They also wish to learn about God and how to 
be saved. And to obtain these blessings they are willing to give 
something — willing to give land for missionaries to build school- 
houses, and help the missionary build his house, and pay tuition for 
the children, and help the preacher. 

"In very many places they are begging for a missionary. At a 
point on the Niger, where the steamers landed, the people ran to 
the wharf to meet every boat, saying, ' Has the teacher come ? ' 
(No one had promised a teacher.) 'If the teacher will come, and 
teach us white man's book, we will give him plenty to eat and take 
good care of him !' 

"Another king said: 'I do not wish to die till I can see a 
school house built, where my children can be taught; and a church, 
where my people msij learn about God.' 

" Another king came from the country to Liberia to obtain a mis- 
sionary for his people. 

" I have had chiefs come from the interior to beg for a mission, 
and after giving them one, I have seen them become followei's of 
Jesus. 

" Thus from many places they cry : ' Come over and help us ! ' 
Very different from fifty years ago ! 

" (3) The lack o'^ written languages and boohs was a great obstacle. 
While the nations had regular languages (nearly 700 in Africa), they 
were all unwritten, and, of course, they had no books and no knowl- 
edge of the world or the way of salvation through Christ. This 
universal ignorance was the mottier of gross huperstition and hor- 
rible cruelties. 

"To learn the language and prepare school books, and translate 
the Bible, was a slow process. 

"To-day, over fifty of these languages are reduced to writing. 
The Bible is printed in ten of them, and portions of it in over 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 745 

thirty moreo And many of them have school books, papers, and 
some literature. 

'' Here is a great advance, the benefit of which modern laborers 
can take advantage. 

"And this same work is widely and continually going on. Light 
is spreading and desire increasing. 

" Along the western coast, English is extensively taught, as 
also the French, German and Portuguese, where these nations have 
colonies and trading posts. 

" (4) Lack of native lielp^ at first, made progress slow. The 
white man was alone amid milHons. His ways were all sti'ange 
and inimitable. He was dressed, while they were naked. He read 
books, while they had none. He worshiped Ood^ while they 
trusted in idols and charms. Pie seemed far above them and the 
idea of reaching his [)lane, hopeless. 

" But, with great patience and unwearied perseverance, the 
pioneers toiled on, teaching, preaching, learning languages, writing 
elementary books, instructing children and youth, to prepare native 
helpers. 

" To-day, there are about 8,000 ordained and unordained native 
preachers, and thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of 
pupils who are being ])repared for future helpers — an army of 
native workers — and many are running to and fro and knowledge 
is being increased. 

" Modern missionaries can now obtain interpreters for almost all 
parts of Africa, and this is a great help, which calls f )r heartfelt 
thanksgiving and praise to God who has wrought these favorable 
changes. 

" I will mention but one more obstacle : (5) The sicMy climate. 
During the first fifty years of missionary life in West and East 
Africa, the mortality was fearful. Pi'obably 500 missionaries have 
died in the missions on the west coast. Nearly twenty died in 
the Mendi Mission where I labored. The Church Missionary Soci- 
ety lost fifty-three in the first twqnty years. Three English Bishops 
died within eight years. 

" In the Basle Mission, on the Gold Coast, in fifty-eight years, 
ninety-one missionaries died. And so it has been in Liberia, in 



746 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

Lagos, Gaboon, and in manj other places. All societies have lost 
many, so that a book written bj an Englishman was entitled " The 
White Man's Grave." The last three years I was in Africa I 
buried four white missionaries. 

" But, thank God, it is different now. They have better houses 
and more comforts and have learned better how to take care of 
tlieir health, so that the mortality in these same places is not half 
so much as it used to be. 

" And missionaries can now reach the healthy high lands where 
they can live as well as here. So we will ' Thank God and take 
courage.' 

"In the same line more might be mentioned, but enough has 
been noted to show that there is no good cause for discouragement 
in the glorious work of saving Africa, to whom we owe such an 
unspeakable debt. 

" With so many obstacles removed, and so many helps now pre- 
pared to our hand, while vast fields are opening and loud calls are 
wafted to us on every breeze, we may well be encouraged to put 
forth more vigorous efforts to give the Gospel to that people in tins 
generations^ Eev. Geo. Thompson. 

STANLEY ON THE GOMBE. 

On his way to Ujiji to rescue Livingstone, Stanley passed through 
the lands of the Manyara, whicli are plains stretching for a distance 
of 135 miles, well cultivated, thickly strewn with villages, and 
abounding in game, which finds a haunt amid the tall grasses. He 
had never seen such a hunter's paradise as that on the river 
Gombe, which waters the country. Buff'aloes, zebras, giraffes and 
antelope, roamed through the magnificent parks of the section, 
affording excellent sport for the natives, and inviting the traveler 
to halt for a time in order to enjoy the thrill of a hunt. 

The antelope of this section is large and powerful. It goes by 
name of " springbock," because it takes tremendous leaps of ten to 
twelve feet when running. When pursued, it is pleasing and 
curious to see the whole herd leaping over each other's heads, and 
looking back while they are in the air. They are exceedingly 



afric's lights and shadows. 747 

swift, and cannot be overtaken by a horse. They migrate annually 
from the interior toward the coast, and after remaining in the low- 
lands for two to three months, begin a gradual journey toward the 
interior. During these inward journeys their gregarious instincts 
are in full sway, and herds of hundreds may be seen on the grassy 
plains. 

When travelling thus in large herds, they are the victims of 
beasts of prey, as lions, leopards and hyenas, which attack them at 
every favorable opportunity and seldom fail to secure rich feasts. 
Their flesh is excellent eating, and the springbock, together with 
other varieties of the antelope species, furnishes the venison of the 
African continent. ►^ 

As he continued his way along the course of theGombe, feasting 
his vision upon the beautiful scenes before him, he came suddenly 
upon a scene which he says "delighted the innermost recesses " of 
his soul. Just before him were " ten zebras switching their beauti- 
ful striped bodies, and biting one another." Of these he succeeded 
in kilhng one, and then, content with the result of the hunt, he 
retired to camp. Before doing so, however, he thought he would 
take a bath in the placid waters of the river. He says : " I sought 
out the most shady spot under a wide-spreading mimosa, from 
which the ground sloped, smooth as a lawn, to the still, clear 
water. I ventured to undress, and had already stepped to my 
ankles in the water and had brought my hands together for a glori- 
ous dive, when my attention was attracted b^ an enormously long 
body which shot into view, occupying the spot beneath the surface 
which I Avas about to explore by a ' header.' Great heavens ! it 
was a crocodile ! I sprang back instinctively, and this proved myj 
salvation, for the monster turned away with a disappointed look, 
and I was left to congratulate myself upon my narrow escape from 
his jaws, and to register a vow never to be tempted again by the 
treacherous calm of an African river," 

CHKISTIAN HEROES IN AFEICA. 

"My subject is not so much Africa, its people, its customs arc! 
its misfortunes, as the Christian pioneers and their work. Thf 
United Moravian brethren at Herrnhut in Germany, more than a 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 740 

oeniury and a half ago, were stirred up to send out a missioiuiry 
to the poor Hottentots, who wei'e treated as dogs bj tbe Dutch col- 
onists. George Schmidt at once offered himself to go out, and suf- 
fered hardship with a persecuted race, and, having been blessed by 
the conversion of a few, was forbidden to baptize them, and sum- 
marily sent back to Europe by men who called themselves Pi'otes- 
tants, and who were jealous of their own liberty. Fifty years later 
(1792), the United Brethren sent out three more missionaries, who 
founded the illustrious mission of Genadendal, or Yale of Grace, 
on the very walls of the ruined house of George Schmidt, seven 
years after the great patriarch of African missions had been called 
to his reward, dying, like Livingstone and Krapf, on his knees. 

"The London and Wesleyan societies, the Established Church of 
England, the Free Church of Scotland, and the American Board 
of Foreign Missions, took up a share in the blessed work amidst 
other races of South Africa, and out of their ranks by faith Moffat 
undertook to translate the Bible into the language of the Be-Chuana, 
Wilder into the language of the Zulu, and Boyce, Appleyard, and 
others, into the language of the Ama-Xosa, or Kafir— languages 
deemed at the time to be incapable of expressing simple ideas, but 
wliich, deftly handled, proved to be apt exponents of every variety 
of human thought, with an unlimited vocabulary, and an unsur- 
passed symmetry of structure. 

"Moffat's son-in-law, Livingstone, abandoned his home, his 
chapel, and his school, and started off on his great missionary pro- 
gress, which was destined to illuminate all Africa south of the 
Equator. By faith he bore up under the perils, the fatigues, the 
opposition and thebereavement-of his dear wife, who sleeps on the 
shore of the Zambesi. He worked his way to Benguela, on the 
west coast, Kilimani on the east, and Nyangwe on the River Congo 
to the north, discovering new rivers, new lakes, new tribes, and new 
languages. From the drops of sweat which fell from his limbs in 
those great travels have sprung up, like flowers, Christian missions, 
founded by men of different denominations and different views of 
church government, but united in the fear of God, love of Africa, 
and veneration for Livingstone. To the impulse, given by this 
great apostle, must be attributed the missions of the Established 



750 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

Church of Scotland at Blantyre, the Free Church of Scotland at 
Livingstonia, the London Society on Lake Tanganyika, and the 
Universities Mission at Zanzibar. But to this servant of God it 
was not conceded to see one single fruit of his labors. He saw no 
mission spring up ; like Moses, he only beheld the promised land 
from Piso-ah ; he died without knowing of the secret of the source 
of the Nile and the Congo. 

" Krapf and Rebman sat year after year at the watch-tower of 
Mombasa, waiting till the day should dawn, calling to each other : 
'Watchman, what of the night?' writing home descriptions of 
vast lakes, and snow-capped mountains on the Equator, causing 
themselves to be derided, both as missionaries and geographers ; 
yet they lived to be honored in both capacities, they lived to see 
the day dawn at last, to hear of Frere-Town being established as a 
station for released slaves at Mombasa, to hear of those internal 
seas being navigated, and that snow-capped mountain being vis- 
ited. In his old age Krapf in tearful gratitude read Henry 
Stanley's challenge, which rang with trumpet-sound from the cap- 
ital of Uganda, and was gallantly answered by the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, and he lived to hear of the great Apostle's Street, 
which by faith he had suggested, being carried out from Zanzibar 
to the Great Lakes, to be extended westward down the Congo, 
until hands are shaken with the Baptist missionaries working up 
that river from the west. 

" The good Baptist Society established themselves in the island 
of Fernando Po, and, driven thence by the intolerance of the Span- 
iards, they crossed over to the mainland, and found what seemed 
once, but, alas! is no longer, a more enduring inheritance in the 
Kameriin Mountains. By faith here Saker lived, labored and died, 
translating tlie Holy Scriptures into the language of the Dualla, 
but leaving his work to be revised by his young daughter, open- 
ing oat a new field for the talant and zeal of women. Hence in 
fullness of time by faith Comber started to conquer new kingdoms 
of the Congo, making, alas! the heavy sacrifice of the life of his 
wife at San Salvador, before he reached Stanley Pool, with the 
great heart of Africa open to his assault ; for in their hands the 
Baptist missionaries had carried gentle peace, and their vessel with 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 751 

tliat name still carries them onward on their blessed and peaceful 
enterprise. 

" Our good brethren in North America were among the first to 
send out their agents to West and South Africa, to pay back the 
debt whicli they owed, and to atone for the wrong which their 
forefathers had inflicted. The sun was thus taken back to the 
east, to lighten those sitting in darkness. Bach and every one of 
their churches have vied in the desire to found strong missions, 
translate the Holy Scriptures, and to press forward the work of 
freedom, education, civilization and evangelization. 

'' The holy and humble-hearted Protestant churches on the con- 
tinent of Europe, less amply endowed in material resources, but 
more richly in intellect, industry and self-consecration, have sent 
forth a golden stream of missionaries from the centers of Basle and 
Canton deYaud in Switzerland; of Barmen, Breman, Berlin, Herrn- 
hut and Hermannsburg in Germany; from Norway, Sweden, Fin- 
land and France, to hold the fort in the most exposed situations, to 
suffer imprisonment, to achieve great literary works, to found liv- 
ing churches, and attract to themselves the affections of the 
African. 

" Samuel Crowther was rescued from the captivity into which he, 
like Joseph, had been sold by his brethren, was restored to his 
country, to be no longer a slave, but a teacher, a leader, a benefac- 
tor, and an example; he was set apart to give the lie to the ene- 
mies of the African, to stultify the idle taunt, that a negro is inca- 
pable, by his nature, of culture, piety, honesty, and social virtues ; 
he was raised up to mark an epoch in the sad chronicle of his per- 
secuted race, and to be the first fruit of the coming harvest of Afri- 
can pastors and evangelists. His son Dandison, Henry Johnson 
and James Johnson were blessed with the great grace of being 
allowed to tread in his footsteps. 

" If any of my readers desire to know the real worth of the Af- 
rican missionary, let them read the lives of Mrs, Hinderer at Iba- 
dan, and Mrs. Wakefield at Ribt5, and of many othernoble men and 
women, of whom this self-seeking world was not worthy, who left 
comforts at home to labor among the Africans ; who, in spite of 
overpowering maladies, have been, like Hannington, unwilling to 



752 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

leave the country of their clioice, and determined to return in spite 
of the warning voice of tlieir doctor, or who, hke him, have died as 
good confessors. 

" Time would fail me to tell of Schlenker, and Eeichardt, and 
Schon; of Goldie and Edgerley ; of Casalls, Mabille and Coillard ; 
of James Stewart, of Lovedale, and his namesake on the Nyassa ; 
of Grant and Wilson; of Eamsejer and Christaller; of Macken- 
sie, the Bisho}) who died on the Eiver Shird ; and of Steere the 
Bishop who sealed up the translation of the last chapter of 
Isaiah ready for the printed, and then fell asleep at Zanzibar ; of 
Parker, the Bishop, wise and gentle, holy and self-restrained, who 
was called to his rest on the southern shores of Yictoria Ny- 
anza ; of Wakefield and New ; of Stern, Mayer and Flad ; of 
Southon, the medical missionary, who died at Urambo ; of dear 
Mullens, who could not hold himself back -from the fight, and 
who sleeps in Usagara ; of many a gentle ladies' grave — for 
women have never been found wanting to share the honor and 
the danger of the Cross." ROBERT N. CUST, L. L. D. 

THE BOILING POT ORDEAL. 

Mr. Arnot says of the Zambesi Valley : " A small company gath- 
ered in front of my hut, and began an animated discussion, which 
grew hotter and hotter, and shortly a large fire was kindled, and a 
pot of water set on it. I was told that this was a trial for witchcraft, 
and that the two persons charged had to wash their hands in the 
water, and if after twenty-four hours the skin came off; the victims 
were to be burnt alive. First one, then the other, dipt his hands 
into the fiercely-boiling water, lifting some up and pouring jt over 
the wrist. Twenty-four hours told its tale, and I saw the poor 
fellows inarched off to be burned before a howling, cursing crowd. 
Such scenes, T afterward found, were almost of daily occurrence. 

"1 proposed to the king to require both the accuser and the 
accused to put their hands into the boiling water. The king is 
strongly in favor of this proposal, and would try any means to stop 
this fearful system of murder, which is thinning out many of his 
best men, but the nation is so strongly in favor of the practice that 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 753 

he can do notliing. An old friend of mine, Wizini, who took quite 
a fatherly care and interest in me, was charged with witchcraft. 
He pleaded earnestly to be spared the terrible trial, and was reprieved 
because of his years, but he was banished from his people and 
country for life, for no other reason than that a neighbor had an ill- 
feeling against him. Had he been first to the king with his com- 
plaint, he might have seen his neighbor burned or banished instead 
of himself. I much missed this old man." 

" When manners and customs are referred to, the particular dis- 
trict must be borne in mind. Africa is an immense continent, and 
there is as much variety in the customs of the diffei'ent tribes as in 
their languages. Certain tribes take delight in cruelty and blood- 
shed ; others have a religious fear of shedding human blood, and 
treat aged people with every kindness to secure their good- will after 
death. By other tribes the aged would be cast out as mere food for 
wild animals." 

THE ADVENTURES OF A SLAVE. 

A lad who was recently baptized at the Baptist mission on the 
Congo, relates a strange story of his adventures. His name is 
Kayembe. When he was 10 years old an Arab caravan passed 
through the district in which he lived with his parents. His people 
lived in terror for nearly two months, part of the time in the jungle. 
One morning, the slavers came with drums and singing. Kayembe's 
father, after throwing a spear at an assailant, was shot dead, and his 
hand cut off as a trophy. Kayembe fled to the jungle, but was 
caught by some Nyangwe men, who took him with them and went 
from town to town killing men and little children and catching tlie 
women. Children who tried to follow their mothers were beaten 
back. Finally Kayembe was taken to Stanley Falls, where he 
was sold to a state soldier, a Zanzibari. This man, when he was 
taken sick, sold him to a Hausa soldier, who, when his time was 
up, took him to Leopoldville, at Stanley Pool, and the lad fell into 
the hands of the mission as the personal boy of Mr. Biggs. After 
Mr. Biggs died, Kayembe manifested great grief and came under 
Mr. Bentley's care, and a year ago professed to have given his heart 
to the Savior, He was not more than thirteen years old then, and 



754 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

his baptism was dela_yed, but both bj his words and his life he has 
sliowu himself to be a Christian, and in March last he was baptized. 
His capture and the death of his father are a terrible memory to him, 
though he is full of thankfulness that he has come to learn of the 
Savior. He has chosen a small town, about an hour from Wathen, 
which he regards as his field for Christian work ; thither he often 
goes to find an audience of fifteen or twenty. 

ARAB CRUELTIES IN AFRICA. 

Letters to the secretary of the Free Church Missionary Society, 
from East Central Africa show that the power of the Arabs in the 
region is rather decreasing, but they still continue formidable. 
Many of the native supporters of the Arabs are deserting to the 
missionaries. These latter and the agents of the African Lakes 
Company, with the assistance of friendly negroes, have been suc- 
cessful in keeping the Arabs somewhat in check, but the Arabs 
still destroy a number of the negroes. Many instances are'recorded 
of the Arabs lying in ambush and shooting down natives as they 
make their way to and from their gardens. About three months 
ago the slavers, assisted by the Chief Merere, made a raid and 
destroyed a number of native villages at Ukume, killing, burning 
and plundering wherever they went. Many of the inhabitants 
escaped to the hills. Some thirty young women were taken cap- 
tive, and afterward sold, the children crying for their murdered 
parents. Some of them were clubbed and others thrown into the 
flames from the burning huts. Much anxiety is felt regarding the 
fate of the white men on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. 

A LION HUNT. . 

Col. Baker thus describes a lion hunt in the Shooli country : 
" The grass had been set on fire by the natives, but as the wind was 
light the game advanced at an easy pace. Presently I saw a 
splendid buck antelope advancing toward me. Just as I was going 
to fire, a long yellow tail suddenly rose, and an instant later a fine 
hon flashed into view, disturbed by the approaching flames. The 
lion and antelope crossed paths. Both seemed startled, but soon the 



AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 755 

antelope bounded away, leaving tlie lion with his head toward my 
position. 

" Not wishing a closer acquaintance, I aimed directly at his chest 
and fired. The lion rolled completely over, roared tremendously, 
and turned three successive somersaults, but to my astonishment 
appeared to recover. I immediately fired my left hand barrel. 
Quick as a flash he bounded toward me, and charged on my two 
native companions. I quickly snatched one of their guns and 
stepped out from behind the ant-hill which I had used for a cover. 
The beast appeared to be diverted from his charge by the sudden- 
ness of my movement, and turned as if to retreat. I let him have 
a full charge of buck-shot in his hind-quarters, and he continued his 
retreat into the high grass. 

"Groans now issued from the grass, and the natives proposed to 
attack the beast with spears if I would back them up with my 
rifle. We approached the spot and soon found the beast within the 
grass. I would not let the natives approach near enough to use 
their spears, but fired the right barrel of my rifle, at a distance of 
twenty yards. The immediate reply was a determined charge, and 
the infuriated beast came bounding toward us with mouth agape and 
roaring furiously. The natives threw their spears, but missed. I 
fired my left hand barrel, but nothing was equal to the task of 
stopping that deadly charge. We all had to run for our lives, back 
to the protection of the ant-hill, where our reserve fire arms were. 
Snatching up a rifle, I fired directly into his heart, just as he had one 
of the natives fairly within reach. This sent him reeling backwards, 
and he beat a retreat to his original cover. 

" I now quickly reloaded, and, ordering every one to keep out of 
the way, I wal Iced cautiously toward his cover. There I saw liim 
sitting on his haunches, and glaring savagely in a direction opposite 
to the one in which I was approaching. I aimed directly for his 
neck, at a distance of twelve yards, and must have broken it, for the 
beast fell over stone dead. It was a fine specimen, and had certainly 
afforded enough excitement for one day's hunt. On cutting the 
beast open we discovered in its stomach the freshly eaten remains 
of an antelope calf, simply torn into lumps of tvvo or three pounds 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 757 

each. The natives regarded this as too dainty a morsel to let 
escape, and so divided, it among themselves for supper." 

MOHAMMEDAN INFLUENCE. 

Lieutenant Wissmann's contribution to the "Proceedings of the 
Royal Geographical Society," throws light on the question of Mo- 
hammedanism and missions in West Central Africa. The writer's 
experience of Mohammedan influences upon the native populations 
is in direct contrast with the assertion that the creed of Islam 
is that best suited to their needs. He gives a graphic account of 
two visits to Bagna Pesihi, and certain villages of the Bene Ki, a 
division of the Basonge, in Central Africa, before and after the 
arrival of a gang of Arab traders on the scene. 

On the first occasion, he was welcomed by a prosperous and con- 
tented, tribe, whose condition and occupations bore ample evidence 
to the existence of its villages for decades in peace and security, 
free from the disturbing elements of war and slave- hunts, pestilence 
and superstition. The huts of the natives were roomy and clean, 
fitted with shady porches, and surrounded by carefully kept fields 
and gardens, in which were grown all manner of useful plants and 
fruits including hemp, sugar, tobacco, sweet potatoes, maize, 
manioc and millet. A thicket of bananas and plantains occupied 
the back of each homestead, and shady palm groves supplied their 
owners with nuts, oils, fibers and wine. Goats, sheep and fowls 
abounded, and no one seemed afraid of thieves. The people all had 
a well-fed air, and were anxious to trade, their supplies being plen- 
tiful and extremely cheap. A fowl could be purchased for a large 
cowrie shell, and a goat for a yard of calico. Everywhere the visi- 
tors found a cheerful, courteous and contented population, uncon- 
taminated by the vices of civilization, and yet not wholly ignorant 
of its arts. 

Four years later Lieutenant Wissmann chanced to be in the same 
district, and after the privations of a toilsome march through dense, 
inhospitable forests, rejoiced as he drew near to the palm groves of 
the Bagna Pesihi. A dense growth of grass covered the formerly 
well-trimmed paths. 



758 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

" As we approach the skirt of the groves we are struck by the 
dead silence which reigns. No laughter is to be heard, no sign of 
a welcome from our old friends. The silence of death breathes over 
the lofty crowns of the palms, slowly waving in the wind. We 
enter, and it is in vain we look to the right and left for the happy 
homesteads and the happy old scenes. Tall grass covers everything, 
and a charred pole here and there, and a few banana trees are the 
only evidences that a man once dwelt here. Bleached skulls by the 
roadside, and the skeletons of human hands attached to poles tell 
the story of what has happened here since our last visit." 

It appeared that the notorious Tippoo Tib had been there to 
" trade," and in the course of that process had killed all who offered 
resistance, carried off the women, and devastated the fields, gardens 
and banana groves. Bands of destroyers from the same gang had 
returned again and again, and those who escaped the sword perished 
by the small-pox and famine, which the marauders left in their 
train. The whole tribe of the Bene Ki ceased to exist, and only a 
few remnants found refuge in a neighboring state. 

Such must be counted amongst the results of Arab " trading " in 
Africa, and if it is at such cost that the blessings of Mohammedan 
civilization are purchased by the native races, it is no wonder that 
they are not considered a desirable acquisition. Even if it be true 
that Christianity is sometimes tardy of operation in its beneficent 
effects upon the blacks, Christian missionaries and Christian 
traders can at least boast that they have not wittingly acted other- 
wise than beneficently towards them. 

A VICTIM OF SUPERSTITION. 

The following incident is related by Bishop Crowther: "A 
slave who lived at Alenso was decoyed to a neighboring village 
under the pretence that he was appointed to offer a goat as a sacri- 
fice to a dead man. On arrival at the house where the corpse was 
laid out, the goat was taken from the slave, and he was at once 
pounced on by two stalwart men and bound fast in chains. The 
poor man saw at once that he himself, not the goat, was to be the 
victim. He calmly addressed the people around, saying he was 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AMt) SHADOWS. 769 

quite willing to die and need not be put in cliains. A pipe was 
brought to him, which he smoked, a new cloth I'eplaced his rags, 
and while he was having his last smoke the daughter of the 
deceased chief stood before him and began to eulogize her dead 
f\tlier, telling of his former greatness and achievements. The 
address was directed to the victim, that he might repeat the same 
to the inhabitants of the spirit world wlien he arrived there. 

"The news of tlie intended sacrifice was soon circulated. It 
reached the ears of the missionary. Rev. J. Buck, who, with some 
Sierra Leone friends, hastened to the spot. A large hole had been 
already dug; the poor man was led into it, and ordered to lie on 
his back with his arms spread out. The missionary and his friends 
used all possible arguments, entreaties, and pleadings for his release, 
but in vain. They offered to give bullocks for sacrifice instead 
of the man, but these were flatl^^ refused ; and while they stood 
entreating, the corpse was brought and placed on the poor slave. 
He was then ordered to embrace it, and- obeyed. The missionary 
and his friends turned away from the horrible sight as the grave 
was being filled, burying the living as a sacrifice with the dead." 

HEROIC WOMEN". 

"While great praise has been bestowed on certain heroic mission- 
aries and explorers who have braved the dangers of Africa, little has 
been said concerning the women who have endured equal hardships 
amid the same hostile tribes and inhospitable climates. Mrs. Liv- 
ingstone laid down her life while accompanying her husband on 
his second great tour in Africa. Mrs. Hore made her home for 
several years on an island in Lake Tanganyika. Mrs. TTolub was 
with her husband when he was attacked by the natives and robbed 
of everything, and endured with him the hunger and fatigue of 
which they both well-nigh perished. Mrs. Pringle traveled in a 
canoe several hundred miles up the Zambesi and Shire rivers to 
Lake Nyassa. Lady Baker was travelling companion to her hus- 
band when he discovered Albert Nyanza. And now we are told 
that three ladies will accompany Mr. Arnot and his wife as mission- 
aries to Garenganze, and to accomplish the journey they will have 



760 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

to be carried in hammocks for hundreds of miles. Women who 
accompanied Bishop Taylor have shown a degree of courage in 
venturing into the perils of Africa which promise well for their 
heroic enterprise. " White women have certainly had their full 
share of the hardships and sufferings of pioneer work in Africa." 

MAEY Moffat's faith. 

In the life of Robert Moffatt, first edited by their son, we are 
reminded that for ten years the early mission in Bechuana Land 
was can-ied on without one ray of encouragement for the faithful 
workers. No convert was made. The directors at home, to the 
great grief of the devoted missionaries, began to question the wis- 
dom of continuing the mission. A year or two longer the dark- 
ness reigned. A friend from England sent word to Mrs. Moffat, 
asking what gift she should send out to her, and the brave woman 
wrote back: "Send a communion service, it will be sure to be 
needed." At last the breath of the Lord moved on the hearts of 
the Bechuanas. A little group of six were united into the first 
Christian church, and that communion service from England, 
singularly delayed, reached Kuruman just the day before the 
appointed time for the administration of the Lord's Supper. 

TATAKA, LIBERIA. 

" A word from Tataka Mission, this beautiful June day (June 6, 
1889), may be interesting. A shower of rain has just fallen and 
everything looks refreshed, and as I sit on our veranda and look 
around I wish I could have some of my friends look at the fair 
picture. All nature is beautiful, but these darkened minds, as 
dark as their skins, can see no beauty in it. They never gather 
flowers, for their beauty ; at times they bring in a few leaves and 
roots for medicine. 

" At my right hand is a woman cutting wood. This is part of 
the women's work, and they have learned the art of using their 
cutlasses so well, that, in a short -time, they cut and carry on their 
heads more than I can raise from the ground. 

"At this season the sounds of drum and dancing can be heard 



AFRIC'S LIGflTS AND SHADOWS. 761 

most every niglit in merry-making. After crops have been gathered, 
these poor creatures, to whom enough to eat is their all, spend their 
strength in dancing out their joy. 

"The people recognize there is a God, but only in severe illness 
do they call on Him. Then their pitiful wail of 'Oh, Niswa ! Oh, 
Niswal' is touching. The devil is really their god and to him 
they pay rites and ceremonies and of him they are terribly afraid. 
We talk to them of God and heaven, of wrong and right, and they 
say: 'Yes, it be good, but that be white man's ' fash,' we be devil- 
men.' They haven't a desire beside their pot of rice and palm 
butter and mat to sleep on. 

" Our little farm looks nicely now; 500 coffee trees just set out, 
a new lot of edoes and sweet potatoes and yams coming on, with 
plenty of rice in the house. Meat we seldom see, fish occasionally 
can be bought from the natives, but they catch but few and want 
them for their own ' chop.' 

" The laws and customs of this land are very loose. A man 
has just done another a foul wrong. lie found he was to be called 
to account, and ran to another town to beg some of the '•hig'' 
men to go to his town and beg him off. As they say in English : 
' Please, I beg you, do yonr heart good ; I beg you let it pass.' 
And they are so persistent with their ' m-ba-ta's' (I beg you), that 
you are glad to let them go. Thus evil goes unpunished. 

" Another custom, that of buying women, is the most dreadful to 
us. A girl is chosen for a boy when he is still a growing lad. 
When he is a man and she about 15 to 17 he wants to take her to 
his house as his woman. He has to pay the whole price settled 
on : usually two bullocks, two goats, with some cloth, pots, etc. 
Then if he does not have the means to pay he goes to any man in 
his family, that is a ' head man,' and demands pay for his woman. 
Just this week one of our big men had to sell his little five-year- 
old daughter to get money to give his nephew to pay for his wife. 
Sometimes this is very hard for the parents to do, but their coun- 
try fash demands it. Some one had to do the same for them. A 
second or third woman is bought by their own earnings or comes 
to them by the death of their brothers. When a man dies his 
women are divided among the nearest relatives, and are their 



762 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

women thereafter. The first one is head woman, and occupies the 
big house; each of the others has a small house. 

" Every day's experience shows us how difficult it is to do any 
real good among this Taboo people. They will shake you by the 
hand and smile in your face, but behind your back do all they can 
to overthrow the mission. The green-eyed monster jealousy lives 
here. A man cannot come out and say, I will do this or that; if 
he did, he would soon die. 

"They will tell you with a good deal of pride, 'We be 
devil-men.' " Eose A. Bower, 

A NATIVE WAR DANCE. 

When Baker arrived in the Obbo country, he found the people 
in a great state of excitement owing to the presence of a marauding 
band of Arabs who had announced a raid on the neighboring Madi 
people. While it was plain that the proposed raid was wholly for 
booty in slaves and ivory, the Obbo people were easily influenced, 
and found in it an opportunity to revenge themselves for some old 
or imaginary grievance. 

They are a fine, athletic people, and somewhat fantastic, as things 
go in Central Africa, As nothing is ever done among them with- 
out a grand palaver, the chief called the tribe into consultation, 
which turned out to be a very formal affair. The warriors all 
appeared fully armed with spear and shield, and their bodies 
painted in various patterns with red ochre and white pipe clay. 
Their heads were ornamented with really tasteful arrangements of 
cowrie shells and ostrich feathers, the latter often hanging down 
their backs in graceful folds. 

The consultation proceeded for some time with due regard to 
forms and with an apparent desire to get at a majority sentiment, 
when of a sudden it ended with an outburst from the warriors, and 
then filmg away into sets or lines, each line indulging in panto- 
mimic charges upon an imaginery enemy, and going through all 
the manoeuvers of a fierce contest. Their activity was simply won- 
derful, and if they could have brought that show of vigorous ath- 
leticism and that terrible determination of countenance to bear 
upon their Madi enemies they must have carried consternation into 



764 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

their ranks. The exhiliarating and ostentatious ceremony proved 
to be the national war-dance of the tribe, which takes place as a 
ratification of the results of a tribal palaver, when the sentiment 
has been unanimous for war. 

It was a pity to see these fine fellows so imposed upon by the 
wily Arabs, but they seemed to be wholly under their influence, 
for no sooner had tlie war-dance 6nded, which it did more through 
the exhaustion of the participants than through a desire to stop, 
than the chief arose and delivered a most voluble- and vehement 
address, urging upon his warriors to assist the Arabs in their pro- 
posed raid and to beat the Madi people at all hazards. Several 
other speakers talked in a similar strain, with the efi^ect of arous- 
ing the greatest enthusiasm. The result was that the Arab leader 
started on his raid with 120 of his own armed followers, surrounded 
and supported by the entire warlike force of the Obbos. 

AFRICAN GAME LAWS. 

Eastward of Lake Albert Nyanza is the Shooli country. In the 
midst of this tribe Col. Baker established Fort Fatiko. While 
awaiting reinforcements, lie cultivated tlie friendship of the natives 
and soon found himself on excellent terms with them. The grass 
was fit to burn and the bunting season had fairly commenced. All 
the natives devote themselves to this important pursuit, for the 
chase supplies the Shooli with clothing. Thougli the women are 
naked, every man wears an antelope skin slung across his shoul- 
ders, so arranged as to be tolerably decent. 

All the waste tracts of the Shooli and Unyoro country are 
claimed by individual proprietors who possess the right to hunt 
game therein by inheritance. Thus in Africa the principle of the 
English game preserve exists, though without definite metes and 
bounds. Yet a breach of their primitive game laws would be 
regarded by the public as a disgrace to the guilty individual, pre- 
cisely as poaching is a disgrace in England. 

The rights of game are among the first rudiments of property. 
Man in a primitive state is a hunter, depending for his clothing 
upon the skins of wild animals, and upon their flesli for his sub- 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 765 

sistence ; therefore the beast that he kills upon the desert must be 
his property; and in a public hunt, should he be the first to wound 
a wild animal, he will have gained an increased interest or share 
in the flesh by having reduced the chance of its escape. Thus 
public opinion, which we must regard as the foundation of equity^ 
rewards him with a distinct and special right, which becomes law. 

It is impossible to trace the origin of game laws in Central 
Africa, but it is nevertheless interesting to find that such rights 
are generally acknowledged, and that large tracts of uninhabited 
country are possessed by individuals which are simply manorial. 
These rights are inherited, descending from father to the eldest 
son. 

When the grass is sufficiently dry to burn, the whole thoughts 
of the community are centered upon sport. Baker, being a great 
hunter, associated with them. Their favorite method of hunting 
is with nets, each man being provided with a net, some 30 feet 
long and 11 feet deep. A council was called and it was decided 
that the hunt should take place on the manors of certain individ- 
uals whose property was contiguous. 

At length the day of the hunt arrived, when several thousand 
people collected at a certain rendezvous, about nine miles distant 
fi'om Fatiko, the best neighborhood for game. " At a little before 5 
A. M.," says Baker, " I started on my solitary but powerful horse, 
Jamoos. Descending the rocky terrace from the station at 
Fatiko, we were at once in the lovely, park-like glades, diversified 
by bold granite rocks, among which were scattered the graceful 
drooping acacias in clumps of dense foliage. Crossing the clear, 
rippling stream, we clambered up the steep bank on the opposite 
side, and, after a ride of about a mile and a half, we gained the 
water-shed, and commenced a gradual descent towards the west. 
We were now joined by numerous people, both men, women, and 
children, all of whom were bent upon the hunt. The men carried 
their nets and spears ; the boj^s were also armed with lighter wea- 
pons, and the very little fellows carried tiny lances, all of which 
had been carefully sharpened for the expected game. The women 
were in great numbers, and upon that day the villages were quite 
deserted. Babies accompanied their mothers, strapped upon their 



766 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

backs with leatliern bands, and protected from tTie weatlier bj the 
usual tortoise-hke coverings of gourd-shells. Thus it may be 
imagined that the Shooli tribe were born hunters, as they had 
accompanied the public hunts from their earliest infancy, 

"As we proceeded, the number of natives increased, but there was 
no noise or loud talking. Every one appeared thoroughly to imder- 
stand his duties. Having crossed the beautiful Un-y-Am^ river, 
we entered the game country. A line of about a mile and a half 
was quickly protected by netting, and the natives were already in 
position. 

"Each man had lashed his net to that of his neighbor and sup- 
ported it with bamboos, which were secured with ropes fastened to 
twisted grass. Thtts the entire net resembled a fence, that would be 
invisible to the game in the high grass, until, when driven, they 
should burst suddenly upon it. 

" The grass was as dry as straw, and several thousand acres were 
to be fired up to windward, which would compel the animals to run 
before the flames, until they reached the netting placed a [ew paces 
in front, where the high grass had been purposely cleared to resist 
the advance of the fire. Before each section of net, a man was con- 
cealed both within and without, behind a screen, simply formed of 
the long grass tied together at the top. 

"The rule of sport decided that the proprietor of each section of 
netting of twelve yards length would be entitled to all game that 
should be killed within these limits, but that the owners of the 
manors wliich formed the hunt upon that day should receive a hind- 
leg from every animal captured. 

" This was fair play ; but in such hunts a breach of the peace was 
of common occurrence, as a large animal might charge the net and 
receive a spear from the owner of the section, after Avhich he might 
break back, and eventually be killed in the net of another hunter ; 
which would cause a hot dispute. 

"The nets had been arranged with perfect stillness, and the men 
having concealed themselves, we were placed in positions on the 
extreme flanks with the rifles. 

" Everything was ready, and men had already been stationed at 
regular intervals about two miles to windward, where they waited 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 767 

with tlieir fire-stick for the appointed signal. A shrill whistle dis- 
turbed the silence. This signal was repeated at intervals to wind- 
ward. In a few minutes after the signal, a long line of separate 
thin pillars of smoke ascended into the blue sky, forming a band 
extending over about two miles of the horizon. 

" The thin pillars rapidly thickened, and became dense volumes, 
until at length they united, and foi'med a long black cloud of smoke 
that drifted before the wind over the bright yellow surface of the 
high grass. The natives were so thoroughly concealed, that no one 
would have supposed that a human being besides ourselves was iu 
' the neighborhood. The wind was brisk, and the fire travelled at 
about four miles an hour. We could soon hear the distant roar, as 
the great volume of flame shot high through the centre of the 
smoke. 

"Presently I saw a slate-colored mass trotting along the face of 
the opposite slope, about 250 yards distant. I quickly made out a 
rhinoceros, and I was in hopes that he was coming towards me. 
Suddenly he turned to my right, and continued along the face of the 
inclination. 

" Some of the beautiful leucotis antelope, here known as gemsbock, 
being of a small variety, now appeared and centered towards me, 
but halted when they approached the stream, and listened. Tlie 
game understood the hunting as well as the natives. In the same 
manner that the young children went out to hunt with their par- 
ents, so had the wild animals been hunted together with their 
parents ever since their birth. 

"The leucotis now charged across the stream; at the same time a 
^ herd of hartebeest dashed past. I knocked over one, and with the 
left-hand barrel I wounded a leucotis. At this moment a lion and 
lioness, that had been disturbed by the fire in our rear, came bound- 
ing along. I was just going to take a shot, when, as my finger was 
on the trigger, I saw the head of a native rise out of the grass 
exactly in the line of fire; then another head popped up from a 
native who had been concealed, and rather than risk an accident I 
allowed the lions to pass. In one magnificent bound they cleared 
the stream, and disappeared in the high grass. 

"The fire was advancing rapidly, and the game was coming up 



768 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

fast. A small herd of leucotis crossed the brook, and I killed 
another, but the smoke had become so thick that I was nearly 
blinded. It was at length impossible to see ; the roar of the fire and 
the heat were terrific, as the blast swept before the advancing flames, 
and filled the air and eyes with fine black ashes. I literally had to 
turn and run hard into fresher atmosphere to get a gasp of cool air, 
and to wipe my streaming eyes. Just as I emerged from the smoke, 
a leucotis came past, and received both the right and left bullets in 
a good place, before it fell. 

" The fire reached the stream and at once expired. The wind swept 
the smoke on before, and left in view the velvety black surface, 
that had been completely denuded by the flames. 

" The natives had killed many antelopes, but the rhinoceros had 
gone through their nets like a cobweb. Several buffaloes had been 
seen, but they had broken out in a different direction. I had placed 
five antelopes to my credit in this day's sport," 

VIVI, ON THE CONGO. 

" Vivi could be made a beautiful place, if we only had water, but 
this is a big ^/, and yet I think not impossible. Last Sabbath I 
went to the villages and preached to one king and some of his 
people. He seemed interested and said I must come again. Then 
we went to another village, where they were having a palaver over 
a sick man. There were many men, women, boys, and even babies 
present. 

" Their ngongo (or doctor) was seated in the midst, with the sick 
Tnan near by. The doctor had a cloth spread out in front of him on 
the ground, that contained nearly everything — vegetable, mineral, 
animal, birds' claws, chickens' feet, goats' feet and hides, teeth and 
claws of wild animals. There were also roots, nuts, dirt and many 
other things. There were some leaves lying on top of this collec- 
tion, with something on them that reminded me of a cow's cud, 
half-chewed, which he fixt up as a dose. 

'• He divided the cud in three parts, placing one part in a wooden 
disli with some leaves. Then he cut off bits of roots or something^ 
and put in each of these three piles, taking at the sarne time a 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 769 

little of each in liis mouth. After chewing it quite thoroughly, he 
spit several times on each pile. After water had been poured on it, 
the dish was surrounded by the women. Then he squeezed the 
juice out of the little heaps in the dish. At two different times 
the sick man took a swallow of the juice. Then the doctor took a 
sharp knife and cut his own tongue, till it bled freely. The blood 
ran down on a staff and a green leaf that lay in front of him ; then 
he took up the leaf and staff and rubbed the blood on different 
parts of his body. This, with much more nonsense, was carried on, 
"when I tried to get a hearing, but nothing of this kind could be 
done till the palaver was over, and the sick man was finished. 

" I like Vivi, and as we must have a receiving and transport 
station here, I am doing what I can to make it a success. In addition 
to repairing the buildings already here, I am going to put up some 
stone buildings. They will not be expensive, as stone is abundant, 
and much more durable than wood for building, being fire and ant- 
proof. I am also trying to do something in the way of self-support 
by getting around me some cattle, sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, 
pigeons, etc.; and growing such native fruits and produce as do well 
here at Vivi. This will be convenient in the event of war, small- 
pox or famine — I mean such famine as might occur from not being 
able to get supplies from home or here, at the time we need them. 
Mr. McKitrick, a gentleman of the A. B. M. U. Mission, called a few 
days ago, saying they could not buy a goat or chicken on the south 
side of the river. In the past few days the Baptists and traders 
have been over here buying chickens. Soon, unless some one turns 
his attention to raising these things, there will be none to buy. 
They bring now one piece and a half (thirty to fifty cents) for oue 
foul. 

"The chief wanted to buy 100 fowls from me a few days ago. 
With a ready sale for all the sheep, goats, ducks, chickens, etc., 
can you not see self-support in the future for Yivi ? 

" Nearly every steamer brings many Europeans, State men, and 

missionaries, and they are paid salaries, and expect to buy their 

living instead of producing it. They cannot depend on the 

natives for supplies ; they must be raised by some one else or 

49 



770 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

be imported. Now these are my reasons why I tbiuk self-support 
should not be lost sight of. 

" All our live stock is doing well, though this is the hard pull 
for them if there is any ; for we have had no rain for about four 
months and will have none for about three months more. Sheep 
and goats do well here. This is no experiment. The calves, I may 
soon say cattle, are doing finely. If two will do well here, twenty 
or thirty will do the same, as there is an immense range for them 
to graze over. 

" My father keeps a herd of nice wild cattle about a half day's 
walk from here. He has already given me two whole bullocks 
since I came to Vivi, and also two large deer as big as mules, 
and a good deal better. I really think shipping meat from 
America or England will soon be a thing of the past. 

"The buffalo and deer here are likely to last a good while, for 
though they are frequently shot at, few are killed. A buffalo I 
killed a few days ago had in it two slugs, shot by the natives, I sup- 
pose. They are a sturdy animal, willing to defend themselves and 
their young to the death, and desperate when at bay. 

" This country will produce an abundance, but white men must 
show the natives how to do it. It is here now as it used to be 
in California. The last ten years of my life were spent on the 
Pacific Coast, when thousands of people returned from there,, 
abusing the people and the country. I have met train after train 
of returning emigrants, who said : " Go back ! go back ! go back to 
God's country ! People are starving ; all are lies about California 
•and Oregon being good countries; on all the Pacific Coast there 
are no places for poor people." 

" But all this did not stop the emigration west, and the Pacific 
slope has proved a rich country. Persons come to Africa, and 
return giving bad reports; still they come, and will come, for 
this country has great advantages." Eev. J. C. Teter. 

RUM ON THE CONGO. 

Bishop Newman has presented to Congress a memorial from the 
World's W. C. T. U. praying that immediate and decisive steps be 



772 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

taken to suppress the liquor traffic in the Congo Free State and the - 
basin of the Niger. The memorial shows that during 1885 more than I 
10,000,000 gallons of the cheapest and vilest spirits ever manufac- i 
tured were sent from the United States, Germany, Holland, England, 
France, and Portugal to the natives of Africa. The quantities 
contributed by the different nations were : 

United States, 737,650 gallons; Germany, 7,823,000 gallons: 
the Netherlands, 1,099,146 gallons; France ("pure alcohol"), 406,- 
000 gallons; England, 311,400 gallons; Portugal, 91,524 gallons. 

The memorial, continuing, says that abundant evidence proves 
that this deadly rum has developed in the natives an alcoholic 
passion almost without parallel, and has sunk them into a state 
of degradation lower than they occupied before they had contact 
with our commerce and civilization. The march of commerce will 
soon place the rum traders in communication with over 60,000,000 
of savages, and unless the traffic is totally suppressed, the result 
will be most disastrous to the cause of humanity, a reproach to the 
Christian nations who supply it, and an outrage second only to the 
slave trade itself. 

The purposes of the memorial and of the arguments made by 
Bishop Newman and Mr. Hornady are to bring about such a revis- 
ion of the General Act of the Berlin Conference as shall completely 
suppress the liquor traffic in the territory in question; to obtain a 
law from Congress prohibiting the exportation of liquor from this 
country to any part of Africa, and to persuade the United States 
Government to use its influence to induce other governments to 
co-operate. 

PALAVERING. 

The council, consultation, or palaver, is one of Africa's fixed 
institutions. We have unfortunately, and unfairly, adopted the 
word "pal aver "to express our notion of what the natives regard with 
all seriousness, and what is, in their polity, as necessary as an 
American deliberative body or a treaty-making power are to us. 
A " palaver" is an idle talk. An African palaver may appear to be 
very idle to us, and considering its length — sometimes days and 
even weeks — it is a terrible bore to white people who have to wait 
till it ends, 



AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 773 

The palaver is universal in Africa. Every village has its coun- 
cil place, its assembly hut or its palaver tree. Palaver proceedings 
are always formal and deliberate. There must be a palaver in 
order to declare war and make peace. When one tribe, or chief, 
asks anything of another, it must be granted or refused, through a 
palaver. Visits of white people to a tribe, the right to remain, to 
trade, to build, to preach, and to go away again, are all subjects 
requiring a palaver. Bishop Taylor has found it to be- a capital 
way of making a Christian impression on the minds of his African 
auditors, to call them together in sacred palaver, and he secures 
their assent to such doctrines as they accept, as results of a palaver 
rather than as individual professions. 

When parties of native travelers meet in desert, plain or forest, 
there is always a consultation, or palaver. Notes are compared in 
this way, intentions are expressed, views are made known. The 
palaver, or council, is thus the parliament and newspaper of Africa. 
It runs all through the country, just as do the traveling paths) 
which extend from ocean to ocean. You meet it in Bechuanaland, 
on the Zambesi, at Bih5, on Nyassa, Tanganyika, "Victoria ISTj^anza, 
the Nile, Congo, Niger, Gambia. Sekhomo of Kalihari, squats 
with bis council on burning sands. Mtesa of Uganda, holds a coun- 
cil as lordly as the Shah of Persia. Iboko of the Congo, palavers 
for nine days over the landing of a little steamer. 

Irksome as the palaver must prove to white people, it ought not 
to be forgotten that natives enjoy it, and its sessions are valves for 
the escape of passions which otherwise might result in great harm. 

EMIN PASHA AT ZANZIBAR. 

For weeks after the arrival of Stanley and his rescuing party at 
Zanzibar, the life of Emin Pasha, on account of his severe accident, 
was despaired of. Indeed, not until a very late period has he been 
able to communicate with any one. Meanwhile, rumors of dif- 
ference between him and Stanley became current, and the opinion 
was entertained that Emin would not go to Europe at all, but only 
awaited an opportunity to return again to his abandoned pro- 
vinces. 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 775 

One of his first visitors, after liis illness, was an American 
journalist, who secured the following points : 

" The American people would very much like you to say, in plain 
language. Pasha, so that all may fully understand, why you left 
your post and came out with Mr. Stanley ? " 

" Well, you see," replied Emin, " Mr. Stanley brought orders from 
the Khedive of Egypt for me to return with him. I am an Egypt- 
ian officer, and have no option but to obey the Khedive's orders, 
1 did not wish to leave, and if the Khedive should order me back 
again to-morrow, and would provide me with men and means to 
maintain my position, I would return with the^greatest pleasure." 

"Do you wish the American public to understand, then. Pasha, 
that you could have maintained your position and were under no 
necessity of coming away with Mr, Stanley, had you not received 
orders from the Khedive to do so ? " 

" I think if Mr. Stanley would have consented to wait, much 
could have been done. Things had got to be very bad, however, 
and Mr. Stanley would not wait. He seemed only anxious that I 
and my people, the Egyptians, should go as quickly as we could with 
him to the coast." 

""Were you and your people in great need of assistance when Mr. 
Stanley reached you, Pasha?" 

"We were very glad to have Mr. Stanley come to our relief, of 
course, and we all feel very grateful to the people of England for 
the great interest they have taken in us ; but we were in no great 
need of anything but ammunition. Food was very plent}- with us. 

" The soldiers had gardens, cows, wives, and plenty of everything 
to eat. They were much better off than they ever had been in 
Egypt or the Soudan. They had come to regard the province as 
their home and had no wish to ever return to Egypt. They consid- 
ered that they were fighting for their homes, and so fought well and 
bravely so long as there was a chance of success and the hope of 
assistance from our friends without. It was only when there was 
no longer anything to hope for, and when we read to them the mes- 
sage that they must leave with Mr. Stanley or never expect any 
more assistance from the Egyptian Government, that they began to 
waver in their allegiance to me. Poor fellows, what could they do ? 



,-776 AFKIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

They didn't wish to leave ; the Khalifa's forces were advancing up 
the Nile, they now had everything to gain and nothing to lose by 
turning against me. I do not blame them ; they are but Africans, 
and nothing else was to be expected of them. 

"Mr. Stanley was in such haste to go, he would not wait. If 
Mr. Stanley had consented to wait we might have pushed forward 
stations to the northeast corner of tlie Victoria Nyanza, and 
there we could have met the English Company's caravans. I do 
not know Mr. Stanley's reasons for being in such a harry to leave. 
Perhaps he himself will tell you this." (Mr. Stanley had already 
said that after getting Emin and as many of his people who wanted 
to go, together, at Kavalis, his great concern was to get them safely 
to the coast. As for attempting to open new roads with a crowd of 
helpless women and children in his charge, he couldn't think of 
such a thing, etc.) 

" It was rumored that you had vast stores of ivory in hand, 
Pasha ; what of that ? " 

"Ivory! I had collected for the Government more than 6,000 
fine large tusks since our communication had been cut off. I had 
ivory enough, if I could have got it to market, to have paid off all 
the back salaries of my people, and have had a handsome surplus 
besides." (Six thousand fine large tusks would weigh in the neigh- 
borhood of 200 American tons, worth in Zanzibar about $6,000 per 
ton. The value in Emin's stations wouhl, of course, in no wise 
approach this great sum of value— $1,200,000. Emin told the 
writer that he valued his stores of ivory, as they lay in his stations, 
at about £70,000.) 

" We couldn't bring it with us," the Pasha continued, " so I threw 
most of it into the Nile to prevent the enemy from getting it. 
Some, however, in outlying stations I intrusted to the care of 
friendly native chiefs, not knowing what chances and what oppor- 
tunities time might bring." 

THE SAS TOWN TRIBE OF WEST AFRICA. 

" The officers of this tribe are as follows : 

"The 'town master' is really emperor, as in him is vested the 
power of life and death. If the tribe wishes to disobey a town 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 7? 7 

master's commands, tliej must kill him first. This is done in so 
many instances that few town masters die a natural death. 

" The ' ground king ' is their weather prophet, and he is supposed 
to manufacture the weather. He may be king for only a month or 
two, seldom long, as the weather he makes may not suit, 

" Their ' soldier king ' answers to our general in the army. 

" They have three ' butchers,' who do all the killing for the 
feasts. 

" Their 'town lawyer' answers to our attorney-general. 

" The duty of their ' peace-maker ' is what his name indicates. 

" They have thirty old men or chiefs, whose duties are to watch the 
town and people, and to act as the king's cabinet. 

"The laws of the tribe are made by the king and his cabinet. 
Some of them are curious, and sometimes severe. For instance, one 
law forbids the town master and the butchers from ever leaving the 
town, on pain of death. Another is that when a person is accused 
of witchery, he or she must drink the deadly saswood, or have 
their brains knocked out. This tea is a potion from the saswood 
tree, which grows all over this country and is a deadly poison. 
To make sure of its full effect, the suspected person is made to drink 
a copious draft. As this is likely to produce emesis, the large 
quantity is often their salvation. 

" These people are so superstitious that they will not leave a hole 
in their house open at night for fear of being witched. 

Here polygamy has all the evils of that life. If a wife is dis- 
satisfied with her husband, she can run away to any man she 
chooses, and he must receive her, and pay to her former husband 
the price he paid for her. This may put the second man to quite a 
disadvantage, often giving him more wives than he can pay for. 
The lot of a wife is very hard. She must make the farm, grow all 
the rice, carry all the wood, seven or eight miles, on her head, and 
do all the cooking. Besides this she must stand all the ill-temper 
of her jealous husband, and this, perhaps, with a baby strapped on 
her back. 

" When a man thinks one of his wives is unchaste, he gets a pan 
of palm-oil, and heating it as hot as he can, he makes the wife put 
her hand in and pick up a stone from the bottom of the pan ; his 



778 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

tlieory being, tliat, if his charge be true, the oil will catch fire and 
burn her hand. If this does not satisfy him. the poisonous draught 
of the saswood is resorted to. 

"These people eat nearly everything that grows, animal or vege- 
table. I have seen them eat elephant lungs, green ants, chicken 
heads and intestines. When they kill a bullock, they eat all of 
him, even cooking the hide with the hair on. As I said, every- 
thing goes for food, even rotten bananas. But with all of their 
rotten chop, they are healthy, strong and vigorous men, women and 
children. 

" Their only garment is about four feet of cloth, for all those above 
sixteen years of age ; those younger go entirely naked. 

" They all sleep on the bare ground with a stick for a pillow, and 
of course, skin diseases are quite prevalent. 

"They are a kind people to one another. I have stood at the 
spring, when the women were coming after water, which they^arry 
in four-gallon pots on the top of their head, and one always helps 
the other to lift her load up, and so it is in everything. If a party 
of natives are together, and you give them a banana, it is divided 
between every one of them. I very seldom hear a baby cry ; and 
I niust say that here babies have a chance to live, as they are not 
weaned for two years, and are humored in every way. 

"The Sas-Town tribes work hard for the white man, for very little 
pay. I have seen a woman carry a box, weighing 120 pounds, two 
and a half miles for two leaves of tobacco, worth one and one-eighth 
cents. 

" These people are ignorant, but willing and quick to learn. They 
have some natural orators among them, as I have seen at their 
'palavers.'" C. E. Gunnison. 

AN INTERRUPTED JOURNEY. 

When Livingstone was marching down the valley of the Zam- 
bezi, and had crossed its great northern affluent, the Loangwe, he 
found himself and party of carriers in the midst of a dense forest. 
All of his riding oxen had been killed by the tsetse fly, except one, 
a id this had been so reduced in strength as to be unable to carry 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 779 

the traveler more than half the time. Therefore such a thing as 
forced journeys were out of the question. There was nothing to 
do but to proceed leisurely, and this the party were doing, — pushing 
now through thick clumps of forest, and now through tangled bush, 
as best they might. 

While thus threading their way through a forest clump, there 
was a rush and a roar off to the left, and almost instantly three 
huge buffaloes made their appearance, running as if they been badly 
frightened in the direction whence they came. As the bush was 
tliick and high, they evidently did not see that their course. was 
directly athwart that of the traveling party, and so they rushed 
right into the midst of the carriers, befoie they had time to clear 
the way. Livingstone's ox, frightened at the unexpected dash, 
made a plunge forward, nearly throwing its rider off, but thereby 
escaping the fury of the charging buffaloes. "When he turned, he 
saw one of his carriers flying through the air at a height of twenty 
feet, having been tossed by the foremost of the animals, whose 
fright seems to have been turned into rage at sight of human 
beings. 

The buffaloes rushed by and Livingstone hastened to his carrier, 
expecting to find him dead or badlj' gored. But strange to say he 
was only bruised and frightened, and was quickly able to resume 
his load. On inquiry, Livingstone found that the carrier had drawn 
his misfortune on himself. Instead of doing as the others had done, 
making for a friendly tree, he had thrown down his load, and as the 
leading buffalo was dashing by, he had given it a vicious stab in the 
side, whereupon the beast had savagely turned upon him and sent 
him high into the air. 

IN MONROVIA. 

" The heathen that leap out of the vices and degradation and super- 
stition and the deep darkness of their former lives, into active, 
working, intelligent Christians, are, I am inclined to think, the pro- 
duct of a facile pen from an overliopeful brain. It is not easy to 
shake off lifetime habits, customs hoary, and to them venerable, 
because their ancestors as far back as can be traced, have practiced 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 781 

them, and at once ^scend into the region of a sublime faith, and 
from visible objects and ceremonies whereby wrath of the great 
demon power is averted, and his favor propitiated, turn to the King, 
invisible, immortal. 

" The cerements of old superstition enwrap them. Neither can 
we 'loose him and let- him go' the moment the new desires are 
born in him. His eftbrts are something like a child that is just 
learning to walk ; he takes a step or two, wavers and drops back into 
some past habit, but like a child he is helped up and put on his 
feet again. I went down to Krutownlast week to school. I heard 
tom-toms and saw the people on one street out for a gala day — all 
' dressed up.' The women were painted with different kinds of 
clay, and had a great quantity of leopard teeth around their wrists 
and neck, plenty of brass anklets and armlets, and a towel or break- 
fast shawl thrown loosely and gracefully over one shoulder. Quite 
a number had on a cloth extending nearly to their feet, but all their 
bodies were bare to the hips; a great many held silk umbrellas over 
their heads, and all had a self-conscious air of being 'well dressed.' 
I went on and opened school. One of my Bible scholars was absent, 
a man of 40 or 45, who had learned to read, and showed such a 
meek and quiet spirit. I named him Fletcher. I asked where 
Fletcher was. ' Him got a new wife, you no see that big play? 
Well that be him friends making for him.' Next day he was in 
his place as usual. I asked why he took another wife. ' Mammy, 
the woman done run away from him husband and come to me, and 
I no fittee send him back; I take him.' That was all there was, 
no feeling of having done wrong. Polygamy is the greatest obstacle 
one meets in this part of Africa. The women are ashamed to 
belong — yes, belong, for the man buys her — to a man who is so 
poor he cannot buy more than one or two wives. It is not the 
patriarchal system some think, for the women are every now and 
then running away to some other man. Some never say a word, 
but let the man have his wife, others demand the amount the hus- 
band paid for her, others again make a big palaver. A court is 
called and after several hearings, which sometimes last two and 
three weeks, the wife is restored or returned to her husband, and 
both seem satisfied. It is almost impossible to do any teaching or 



782 AFKIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

evangelistic work wheu one man's wife runs away to anotlier man 
— the latter's friends make merrj by beating tom-toms, singing, 
dancing and drinking rum. 

" These are some of the things that a missionary has to meet, and 
which greatly retard the work. Then time has no value to them. 
Plenty of c/iop, and not a desire and not an emotion beyond that. 
Like the prostrate figure in Peale's Court of Death, the head and 
feet touch the waters of oblivion. So with the heathen here; the 
past and the future are alike impenetrable, incomprehensible." 

Mary Sharp, 
a sample sermon. 

The following is* a sample sermon in Kru English which has 
been found well adapted for the comprehension of the Cavalla 
river natives : 

Niswa make many worlds. Most of the stars are worlds mucb 
larger than this world, and I believe Niswa has plenty good people 
in all of them. The devils once had "their habitation " in one of 
those great worlds. They were good spirits then, and very strong, 
but they live for make bad and fight against Niswa, and were 
driven away from their home, and "fell like lightning from heaven," 
and they hide away in the dark caves of our world. They be fit 
to live in this world till it finish. Then all the devils that come 
down from their great world, and all the bad people of this world 
will be condemned at Niswa's judgment seat and be sent down to 
hell — "the place prepared for the devil" and all his followers. 
There they will all be locked in forever. 

This world is one of the little worlds that Niswa made, and for 
people for this world he made one man and one woman, and join 
them together as man and wife. The man and his wife were clean 
and pure like Niswa. 

One fine day the chief devil of all the army of them came and 
make palaver with the woman, and she make palaver with her 
husband, and the man and woman got bad, and join the devil in 
his rebellion against Niswa. As soon as they turned against 
Niswa and joined the devil's army to fight against Him, the devil- 
nature struck right through them. Then they were called to 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 783 

answer at the bar of justice before the great King, and were found 
guilty and condemned to die. Their bodies be fit to rot in the 
ground, and their spirits to be turned with all the devils into hell 
forever. The Saswood cup of deatli and hell was put into the 
hands of the man and woman to drink. Niswa has one Son just 
like himself. Not a son born of a mother. Niswa no be born of a 
woman. He be Niswa without " beginning of days or end of life." 
So His Beloved Son, just like Him, be without "beginning of days 
or end of life." Niswa and his Son look at the man and woman 
and their cup of "death and feel very sorry for them. Then the Son 
pray, " O Father, let me ransom this man and woman and all th^ir 
seed," Then Niswa and his Beloved Son have palaver, and make 
agreement about the man and woman. The Father agree to give 
His Son a ransom for them. The Son agree at a set time to join 
himself to a son born from "the seed of the woman" and live with 
her children, and show them the mind, the light, the love of Niswa; 
and teach them all Niswa's good ways, and then drink their Sas- 
wood cup of death — to die for them, and the third day after to rise 
again from the dead, to be forever their living redeemer, their law- 
yer in Niswa's court, and their doctor to heal them. 

THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA. 

The extent of European territorial annexation of Africa, provis- 
ional, protective or positive, is quite surprising even to those who 
have kept pretty close watch of it. Of the eleven millions of 
square miles in Africa, six and one-half millions are attached to 
some European power ; and of the four and a half unattached parts, 
half lie within the desert of Sahara. 

That, therefore, is to say that all the continent of Africa that is 
habitable, except about two million square miles, is under European 
domination. Europe has annexed Africa. The "British East 
African Company " is practically another European State in Africa, 
for it is granted full powers to levy taxes and customs and to main- 
tain an armed force. Whether another generation will look upon 
all this as civilized brigandnge, or whether it is any better than 
free-booting of any other type, does not materially affect the facts 



784 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, 

io the case. The British government, througli its colonial or for- 
eign office, nevertheless lias authorized this company (new State) 
to carry on high piracy of much of the finest land in Central Africa 
filled with an industrious population, said to number about Lake 
Nyanza alone twelve millions of people. We are told that the 
company is composed of philanthropic gentlemen in London, and 
we have no doubt but that the ultimate result will be good — "the 
Earth will help the woman" — but it is nevertheless difficult to 
detect any under-lying moral principle above 

" He may take wlio has the power 
And lie may keep who can." 

And while the lion and the lamb in this millennial reign lie down 
togethe]' in peace, it is because the lamb is inside of the lion. 

But Great Britian is not alone in this missionary zeal that " out 
of the eater shall come forth meat and out of the strong shall come 
forth sweetness," though her " sphere of influence " is a million square 
miles of the Dark Continent, France exercises the sweet charities 
of modern politics over 700,000 square miles, and Germany seeks 
to convert, en bloc, if not to Christianity, at least to modern German 
trade-gain, 200,000 square miles, about which she now disputes, to 
add to the 740,000 she has without debate already. Meanwhile 
the king of Portugal takes "military occupation" of a tract of 
land north of Loanda and creates an " attachment" for it to the 
king of Portugal; and the British government "annexes" that 
part of the Gold Coast between Cape Coast Castle and the delta of 
the Niger; and what with treaties, "military operations" and 
"protectorates," Africa becomes rapidly a sort of "country store" 
run by European merchants. 

Barring the radical ethical question in the case, perhaps we may 
rejoice in the bare hope that all this is "casting up the highway 
for the progress of Christianity ; " but if what with rum and gun- 
powder these races are to be " civilized off" the face of the Earth," 
as we have done with our native American races, it would seem 
that there must nevertheless be a great reckoning day with the 
Christian powers, that they could find no better way of developing 
Africa than by fertilizing her soil with the carcasses of her sons. 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 785 

LIONS AND A GIRAFFE. 

The lions of Africa are night prowlers. Yery few have ever seen 
them seize their prey in the day-time. Capt. Anderson once wit- 
nessed such a scene. Late one evening he badly wounded a lion, 
and on the following morning set out with his attendants to track 
the game and complete tlie capture. " Presently," he writes, " we 
came upon traces of a troop of lions and a giraffe. The tracks were 
thick and confusing, and while we were trying to pick out those of 
the wounded lion, I observed my native attendants suddenly rush 
forward, and the next instant the jungle resounded with their shouts 
of triumph. 

" Thinking they had discovered the object of our search, I hurried 
forward ; but imagine my surprise when, emerging into an open- 
ing in the jungle, I saw, not the dead lion, as I had expected, but 
five living lions — two males and three females — two of whom were 
engaged in pulling down a splendid giraffe, the other three watch- 
ing close at hand, and with devouring look, the deadly strife. 

" The scene was of so unusual and exciting a nature that for the 
moment I quite forgot I carried a gun. The natives, however, in 
expectation of a glorious feast, dashed madly forward with the 
most piercing shrieks, and their yells compelled the lions to beat a 
hasty retreat. When I reached the giraffe, now stretched at full 
length on the ground, it made a few ineffectual attempts to raise its 
head, fell over, heaving and quivering throughout its entire body, 
and at length straightened itself out in death. An examination 
showed several deep gashes about the breast and flanks, made by 
the claws of the fierce assailants. The strong and tough muscles 
of the elongated neck were also bitten through in many places. All 
thought of further pursuit of the wounded lion was now out of the ques- 
tion. The natives now gathered about the dead giraffe, and did not 
Resist from feasting upon it till its entire carcass had been devoured. 
A day or two afterwards, however, I came upon the bloody tracks 
of my royal antagonist, and had the pleasure of finishing him with 
a well directed bullet from my rifle," 
50 




LIONS PULLING DOWN A GIRAFFE. (7^6) 



AFKIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 787 

KILIMANJARO. 

In passing southward from Lake Albert Njanza, Stanley and the 
rescued Erain, together with their large party, skirted a lofty range 
of mountains, whose highest peak is Kilimanjaro, which has lately 
been ascended for the distance of 16,500 feet, to the snow line by 
two German scientists and explorers, thus giving it a distinct place 
in geography, and setting it forth as one of the most interesting of 
natural objects. 

The region is south of the great Uganda and Unyoro tribes, and 
had, np to Stanley's trip through it, never been visited by a trav- 
eler of note except Thomas Stevens and Dr. Abbott, who thus nar- 
rate what they saw : — 

" First we determined to pay a visit to the chief of Machawe in 
order to make purchases of food, and besides, we anticipated much 
pleasure in visiting a chief who had never yet set eyes on a white 
man. Our way led through a very charming plain country, very 
African in its appearance. The gently undulating plains were 
dotted with small cones of a hundred feet, or thereabout, in height, 
so small, symmetrical and uniform in shape as to suggest bubbles 
floating on the green waves of the plain. Rhinoceri, giraffes, ante- 
lopes, buffalo and zebra abounded in great numbers, roaming over 
the free, broad plains like herds of cattle. Whenever we knocked 
over any of these, it was very refreshing and soothing to the spirits 
to see the very men who but yesterday had declared ' the nyama was 
not food ' fling down their loads and quarrel violently over big 
chunks of that very article. As we neared the approaches to 
Machawe, we came upon a party of Masai women and donkeys, 
wending their way towards Sigarari with loads of vegetable food, 
which they had purchased at the former place or at Kibonoto. These 
were the first real Masai women we had seen. They were not such 
as to give us a very favorable idea of their sex in Sigarari. All 
were old and atrociously ugly, it being customary, for obvious rea- 
sons, to send the ancient dames of the clan on these food-purchasing 
expeditions, rather than the possessors of youth and beauty. 

" Even though the Masai and their agricultural neighbors may 
•be at war, and the men of either side would, if caught, be brutally 



788 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

speared, it is the custom to let the women pass back and forth 
unmolested to trade. Africans, even the Masai, who are supposed 
to be chiefly devoted to war and raiding for cattle, are above all 
else commercial in their instincts. It appears that, with all their 
savagery, choice scraps of wisdom are to be picked up among these 
people here and there. Who could imagine the armies of two 
European countries proceeding against each other while the trade 
across the frontier flourished unimpaired in the care of their women ? 

" We camped near a swamp, in which we found abundant signs of 
elephants, but saw none of them, and in the morning proceeded to 
Machawe. Machawe is the largest and most populous of the Kili- 
manjaro States, and, with its neighbor, Kibonoto, occupies the west- 
ern extremity of the cultivatable plateau that distinguishes the 
mountain on its southern slopes. Though the largest, it is the least 
known to Europeans, and so we looked forward to a novel and inter- 
esting visit to its Sultan and people. 

" The approaches to Machawe consist of the usual narrow, tortuous 
paths, leading through dense thickets of scrubby and thorny vege- 
tation, and instead of gates the defenses by this route are deep, nar- 
row ravines, which have been trimmed down and deepened into big 
trenches. A pole thrown across one of these ditches forms a bridge, 
which the natives, sure of foot as ponkeys, cross over and, in times 
of war, remove. 

" Crossing these obstacles with no little difficulty, we at once found 
ourselves in the proximity of banana groves, and objects of more 
than usual interest to swarms of bronze-skinned warriors who had 
in a remarkably short time collected on the adjacent ridges. We 
wondered where they had all come from so quickly. They were 
by no means certain of our intentions, and for some time held aloof, 
watching us with the keenest interest. At length we managed to 
make them understand that our intentions were commercial only, 
and a few of the more venturesome individuals came and pointed 
out a place for us to camp. After much talkee-talkee with an 
ancient and exceedingly peaceful-looking savage in a greasy goat- 
skin toga and anklets of the same material, we sent off a present to 
the Sultan and stated our intention of paying him a visit next day. 

" Our delegation was hostipably entertained by the chief, with a 



AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, 789 

goat and big jars of pombe, but the men were kept in the royal 
boma until our appearance next day ; this as a guarantee, so we 
afterwards understood, that we would keep our promise and come 
to see hiin. He was most anxious to receive us, and particularly 
requested that the entire caravan might be brought to his residence. 

" We had no idea how far it was nor how difficult might be the 
way. It turned out to be up hill and down dale for many trying 
miles, through banana plantations of astonishing area and across 
clear, cold mountain streams that nearly swept us off our feet. 

" The country was lovely, a chaotic jumble of narrow hills and 
dales and the whole sloping gently up towards Kibo and clothed 
with luxuriant vegetation of every shade of green. Everywhere 
could be heard the music of mountain streams coursing over rocky 
beds at the bottom of the canons or leaping and tumbling over 
cataracts or down rapids. Between the banana plantations stood 
little patches of primeval forest, and about them, so characteristic 
of Chaga, were the charming little parks we have noted in Marangu. 
The groves are believed to be peopled with the shades of their an- 
cestors, and native offerings are placed before the trees. Troops o& 
big reddish baboons also make the groves and the little parks their 
homes. 

" Irrigating ditches were everywhere, and narrow lanes of dra- 
coena hedges divided the plantations. At length we came to a halt 
on a strip of sward, at the brink of a formidable canon several 
hundred feet deep, down which coursed one of the largest streams 
we had yet encountered. Our guides wanted to conduct us across 
this, but we had grown tired of the interminable slippery paths and 
the ascending and descending steep ravines, and so decided to form 
camp on this extremely interesting spot. No more charming situ- 
ation could be imagined. Five hundred feet below us a torrent, 
clear as crystal, cold and fresh from the glaciers of Kibo, tumbled 
and foamed over the rocks or raced along with gurgling tones. Im- 
mediately beyond the chasm a broad table-land of parks and groves 
and banana plantations stretched away with a slope of one in 
twenty. The variegated shades of green in the irregular patch- 
work of forest, park and field, made a most delightful study in 
colors. Nor was this all nature had to show our wondering eyes 



790 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

in Machawe. Hundreds of warriors, with spear and shield, their 
naked forms the only dark objects in the landscape, showed out in 
bold contrast and picturesque relief against the green ground-work 
of their surroundings as they stood and squatted in dense groups or 
stretched in long, irregular lines along the opposite brink of the 
canon. Beyond all this was a dense mass of cloud that rested on 
the farther reaches of the green table-land and hid almost the whole 
of Kilimanjaro. But not all, for the higher strata of the clouds 
sometimes broke and revealed the eternal wreath of snow on Kibo, 
at whose very base we now seemed to be standing. Some day an 
artist will come and paint this picture I have feebly attempted to 
describe and make himself famous. 

" Our first impression of the Sultan, or chief, was not very favor- 
able. He was a young man of medium stature, under thirty, 
but he looked like a drunkard and debauchee and a decided expres- 
sion of brutishness marked his face. His voice was thick and 
husky, but whether from extreme indulgence in pombe, or from an 
attack of laryngitis, was not then apparent. There was, however, 
small room for doubt about his being a constant worshiper at 
the shrines of the twin deities, before which every chief in Chaga, 
and well-nigh everyone in Africa, bows the knee. But whatever he 
might ordinarily be, he seemed determined to make as good an im- 
pression as he knew how upon his rare visitors, and before we left 
Machawe we voted him, notwithstanding first impressions, a very 
good sort of a fellow. 

"Knowing that we had visited Miljali and intended visiting Man- 
dara, both of whom were to the native mind possessed of many won- 
derous things from Europe, the Sultan of Machawe, ashamed of his 
poverty, seemed reluctant to take us inside his bom a. He 
seemed bewildered and over-awed by the importance of the 
occasion. Anxious to do anything he could think of to please 
his visitors, he and all his elders were too ignorant of the 
white man's character and requirements to know just what to do. 
The whole assembly appeared to be in a profound puzzle. We, on 
our part, made him the customary present of cloth, beads and wire. 
We showed him his own bloated features for the first time in a 
mirror, and amazed him with the ticking of a Waterbury watch. 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. ' 791 

After mucli discussion among themselves, he and his elders seemed 
to make up their minds that the proper thing would be to take us 
into the royal boma, poverty or no poverty. The boma itself was 
a poor aft'air. It consisted of a small stockade of planks set on 
end, which had been laboriously hewn from big logs with native 
tools. Inside the stockade were several houses of very neat con- 
struction and of a pattern that is peculiar to Machawe. Instead of 
the bee-hive houses of Marangu and Taveta, the Machawe hut is 
of an exaggerated bell-shape. 

"Just outside this boma was an inclosure of quite another sort — 
the kraal in which were kept the royal cattle. Tiiis was a remark- 
able affair, and strong enough to be a pretty good sort of a fort. 
Young trees had been planted in a ring to form a fence. They were 
planted in such numbers, and so close together, that as they grew 
up, they formed a living wall of tree trunks several feet thick, and 
so compact that one could not see through it. 

"To our astonishment the king's boma seemed to contain no 

women, a most extraordinary state of affairs, and when we asked the 

. question as to the number of wives he had — always a complimentary 

piece of curiosity at an African court — he smiled and shook his head, 

"* What, none! — why. Miljali, of Marangu, has fourteen, and 
Mandara, of Moschi, many more than that.' 

"Our looks of surprise, and incredulity set the chief and all his 
elders to laughing. There was evidently a * nigger in the fence ' 
somewhere. This full-blown, sensuous-faced young potentate without 
a harem ? Impossible. And then one of us remembered that, con- 
trary to our experience elsewhere in the country, the fair sex in 
Machawe had kept themselves well out of sight as our caravan 
passed their houses. They were too timid and superstitious to let 
themselves be seen by the white strangers, who might, for all they 
knew, take it into their heads to assail them with their mysterious 
powers of ichawi (black magic) which everybody knew they pos- 
sessed to an alarming degree. Tiie Sultan had wives, then — a 
goodly number, no doubt — but all had scampered off and hid them- 
selves at our approach, fearful of ichawi. 

" Bacchus seemed to have rather the upper hand at Ngamini's 
primitive court. I doubt if anything weaker than millet pombeis 



792 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

ever drunk inside the rojal boma. During our visit that beverage 
flowed as freely as beer in a brewery. A huge jar of it was lug- 
ged in and placed in the middle of the assembly, and men ladled it 
out and passed around the gourds continually. 

" The Sultan was opulent enough in the matter of pombe, if not 
in European goods, and so did his best to win our approval of his 
immense resources in that product. He took us into his brewery, 
a smaller inclosure that formed an annex to his resident kraal, and 
enjoyed immensely our astonishment at the vast size of the vats. 
These were earthenware jars, of bulbous shape, eight m number, and 
each capable of holding two hundred gallons or more of liquor. I 
had seen wine jars as large, though of different shape, in Persia, 
but never expected to find such giant pottery in a Chaga state. 

"In brewing pombe the millet, or wimbi, is first pounded with 
stones to break the grain, then boiled in earthen kettles until it 
resembles thin cereal soup ; the whole is then emptied into the big 
jars, covered with a cowhide and allowed to ferment. When dip- 
ped out for use the sediment is stirred up from the bottom, as also 
when dipped from smaller vessels to be passed around. Pombe in- 
this condition is a solid tipple, which comes as near being both food 
and drink as anything of an intoxicating nature can be, and many 
an African chief all but lives on it. It has a pleasant twang to it, 
and the European soon comes to like it almost as well as the native 
boozer does. It goes to the head, too. A pint puts a white man 
in a joyous frame of mind and sets a negro, who effervesces easier 
than his white brother, to singing and whooping. The chiefs, how- 
ever, are as a general thing animated pombe sponges, constantly 
soaked and with the gourd seldom out of reach." 

A HUNT ON THE ZAMBESI. 

The accounts of all African travelers agree, that both vegetable 
and animal life in Africa is rankest and noblest on the banks of 
the Zambesi. Volumes might be written of thrilling adventures 
in this extensive region. " One night," says a noted traveler, 
" while journeying up the Zambesi, and just as we had fixed our 
tents for a good night's rest, a native came rushing in with the news 
that two lions had been seen in the vicinity. The men wanted to 



794 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

go out and look for tliem immediatelj, but 1 dissuaded them from 
encountering the dangers of a night hunt, and promised that I 
would accompany them on the morrow. 

Early next morning the men were astir and busy with their pre- 
parations for a grand hunt. We had dogs with us, and when all 
was ready, these were let loose. A guide led the way to where he 
had seen the lions on the previous evening, but long before we had 
gone so far, and while making our way up a ridge, a noise like 
muttering thunder reached our ears from the valley beyond the 
ridge. The guide stopped, listened for a moment, and tlien, half in 
fear and half in astonishment, gasped, " Tlie lions ! " 

He refused to pilot us further, but sought the nearest tree and took 
refuge amid its branches. The rest of the party pushed on, and on 
peering over the top of the ridge saw an immense lion lying in the 
*edge of a jungle. Our dogs scented him and made a dash toward 
him. The beast arose with a bound, and rushed out into the open. 
This was too much for the dogs, and tliey beat a hasty retreat. 

In a moment more the lion was joined by his mate, and both 
were now in plain sight, both crouching and beating the ground 
with their tails, as if about to make an attack. I took a position 
a few steps in advance of our party, aimed deliberately from a 
kneeling posture, and sent a bullet into the side of the male lion 
just behind the foreleg. Being so close and so deliberate in my 
aim, and my weapon being of a superior kind, I expected to see the 
beast turn over in the agonies of death. But instead, he made two 
or three desperate bounds toward our party, and in his last leap, 
which was a dying spasm, fell directly on the body of Shumi, one 
of our native employes. The poor fellow was frightened almost to 
death, and shrieked as though the lion's fangs and claws were actu- 
ally rending his flesh. But in a moment we all saw that no harm 
was coming to Shumi, for the lion had simply made his last supreme 
effort, and had fallen in a quivering, helpless mass upon the object 
of his attack. 

We now turned our attention to the lioness. Two shots were 
fired at her, which sent her wounded and growling into the jungle. 
Our party formed a front, and marched cautiously toward the 
jungle, prepared to fire, at first sight of the game. Our precautions 



AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 795 

proved to be unnecessary, for we soon discovered the beast too far 
advanced in lier dying throes to be capable of harm to us. Both 
shots had taken effect in mortal parts. We secured, that day, two 
of the handsomest lion's skins I ever saw. 

OPENING A KRU-COAST MISSION. 

"AtSas Town, Monday morning, April 11, 1887, we had a big 
palaver. It broke up abruptly in a storm of passion amid the 
thunder of stentorian voices — a half a hundred big men all talking 
at once and shouting ' batyeo ! batyeo ! ' — same as ' suno 1 suno ! ' 
in Hindustani — or in English, 'listen! attention! attention!' all 
shouting for a hearing and no listeners. 

" So the king said, ' We will go away, and when they cool down 
I will call them together again.' 

** When we met again I re-stated our proposals to found a school 
for book-study and hard work with the hands of teachers and 
scholars, and to make mission for God palaver, according to the 
terms of our agreement, as stated in our written articles. 

"They responded with great unanimity, ' Yes, we want you to 
come and make school and mission, and whenyour carpenters come 
we help them to make house.' 

" I suspected a reservation in their minds in regard to the no-pay 
condition, so I asked Nimly to re-state and explain, so they could 
not misunderstand our terms. He made a clear explanation and an 
eloquent speech in the Kru language — a commanding, fluent speaker 
is Nimly. 

" The king replied, ' Our people won't work without pay.' 

" ' That is right,' I replied, ' and we give them big pay. Instead 
of a few leaves of tobacco, which they would burn the first day, I 
give them missionaries, and make school and mission which will be 
of great value to you, to your children, grand-children, and on 
through all the generations of coming years. But if you are not 
willing to carry lumber and help us, you can waitayear till I come, 
again and we will have another palaver.' 

"They shouted unanimously, ' No ! no! we want school and 
mission now, and we will do all that you have said and written.' 



796 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AISTD SHADOWS. 

So the kings and cliiefs, bj their mark^ signed the articles of 
agreement. 

"Their names were all hard, yet much easier to get on with than 
the men they represented. Only one of the long list of kings and 
chiefs came up to his contract, and he very kindly supplemented 
his labor by that of his wives. The mission house was built, and 
in 1889 contained twenty-five native worshipers." Wm. Taylor. 

A DESPERATE SITUATION. 

Henry Drummond, while pushing his way from Lake Nyassa 
toward Tanganyika, thus writes : " Buffalo fever still on me. 
Sallied forth early with Moolu, a large herd being reported at 
hand. We struck the trail after a few miles, but the buffaloes 
had moved away, passing up a deep valley to the north. I fol- 
lowed for a time, till the heat became too oppressive. Moolu 
with one other native, kept up the pursuit. 

" They returned in a few hours announcing that they had dropped 
two bulls, but not being mortally wounded they had escaped. Late 
in the afternoon, two more of my men came rushing in, saying, 
that one of the wounded buffaloes had attacked their party and 
wounded two of them severely. They wanted assistance to bring 
them home. 

"It seems tbat five of the men, on hearing Moolu's report 
about the wounded buffaloes, and being tempted by the thought 
of fresh meat, had gone off without permission to try to secure 
the game. It was a foolhardy trick, as they had only spears with 
them, and a wounded buffalo bull is the most dangerous animal 
in Africa. It charges blindly at anything, and even after receiving 
its mortal wound has been known to kill its assailant. 

" The would-be hunters soon overtook one of the creatures, a huge 
bull, lying in a hollow, and apparently wounded unto death. They 
walked unsuspectingly up to it, and when quite close the brute 
suddenly ronsed itself and dashed headlong toward them. They 
ran for their lives, but were quickly overtaken, and one of them 
was trampled in a twinkling beneath the feet of the enraged brute. 
A second man was caught up a few paces further on and was liter- 
ally impaled on the animal's horns. 



798 AFEIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

" The first man was able to hobble into camp, but the second had 
to be carried in, more dead than alive. He had two frightful 
wounds, one through the shoulder, the other beneath the ribs. I 
dressed them, and set two natives to watch him through the night, 
lest he should bleed to death. When I came in, on my last visit 
before retiring, I found the nurses busy blowing on the wound. 
Their conception of pain was that it is due to evil spirits, and they 
were exorcising them by blowing. As they were doing no harm, 
I permitted them to indulge in their work through the night. The 
patient had a hard siege of it, but finally got well. He did not 
readily forget his adventure with the buffalo bull." 

STANLEY AND EMIN. 

The London Spectator brings Henry M. Stanley and Emin Pasha 
into strong contrast in its discussion of the celebrated rescue. It 
chooses to regard the rescue as of greater psycological than of his- 
toric or scientific interest to the world, and says . " The revelation 
it affords is" the radical difference in character between the two 
great African adventurers. For years past, Emin Pasha has seemed 
to be the greater of the two, a man who actually ruled, and in a 
degree civilized, great African provinces, who had by his character 
alone maintained his ascendency over a body of successful Moham- 
medan troops, and who had earned, if not the love, at least the 
respect and regard, of millions of black subjects. It now appears 
that some part of all this success must have been accidental. The 
trusted troops revolted on their first great opportunity — as, we 
must injustice remember, did also our own Sepoys — the obedient 
blacks proved equally obedient to the new Arab authority ; and 
Emin himself stood revealed as a thoughtful man of science, patient 
and unfearing, but with little either of the energy or the decision 
which make the true man of action. It may be that in his long 
sojourn at Wadelai, surrounded by Egyptians and blacks, possibly 
taking native wives, for we hear of a young daughter named Ferida, 
and conforming to the ritual of an Asiatic faith, Emin, may have 
become Africanized ; but no change of conditions could deprive 
him of the power of recognizing men, had he originally possessed 



<.o 



800 AFRIC'S LIGHTS AND SHADOWS. 

it. That he erred in his judgment of his agents is clear, for they 
mutinied against and imprisoned him ; his hope that they would fol- 
low him to the coast, and thence to Egypt, turned out as baseless as 
the hope of many an old Sepoy officer that his 'children' at least 
would never mutiny; and to the last, one native officer, if Stanley's 
account may be trusted, deluded the experienced Viceroy like a 
child. 

"One suspects, though perhaps the suspicion may be unfair, 
that he owed much of his apparent success to his profession of 
Mohammedanism — which up to the very last induced his follow- 
ers to draw a distinction between the Pasha, who was only led 
away, and Jephson and Casati, who are called wicked Christians, 
and suspected of designs against their own Egyptian soldiers — and 
of his reputation in Europe to his feeling for science and civiliza- 
tion, a cause which also produced the much too favorable estimate 
of the Emperor of Brazil. On the other hand, the more the true 
man of action is tried, the stronger he appears. Perhaps no man 
that ever lived had his energy and endurance more taxed than 
Henry M. Stanley, who for years on end has suffered all that any great 
African explorer has suffered, with the addition of heavy responsi- 
bility to and for others, and who through it all has steadily grown 
greater in himself as well as in the world's eyes. Statesmen would 
now trust the lad from the Welsh workhouse with African king- 
doms to govern, and the new sovereign companies, who claim such 
immense districts, will compete with each other for his aid. He 
has the qualities which make rulers, and it is in the end on 
these, and not on amiability and feeling for science, or even a per- 
plexed devotion to doubtful duty, that statesmen muss rely. We 
shall do nothing in Africa by passing and repassing through its 
endless forests. We must govern, organize, and above all train its 
people, before anything is accomplished ; and for that work we 
need the service of men who, like Stanley, know that the one cure 
for savagery is discipline, and can enforce it to the end." 



c/ 



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